Fixed-odds betting terminals, also known as FOBTs, currently have a maximum stake of £100 in betting shops across Great Britain. However, that will soon be changed, as the British government decided to decrease the maximum bet size from £100 to £2.
This change, welcomed by some and disliked by others, is subject to a parliamentary vote that will most likely take place in the following year, will have a strong impact on the British gambling and bookmaking industry, as the FOBTs make up a considerable part of their brick-and-mortar betting shops.
Let’s take a closer look at why the British government made this decision and how it will impact the gambling industry, bookmakers and British gamblers.
What are fixed-odds betting terminals?
First of all, it’s important to define what FOBTs even are. While this term is used quite regularly in the UK, it remains virtually unknown in the rest of the world.
Fixed-odds betting terminals are a type of electronic slot machines that can be normally found in brick-and-mortar betting shops across the United Kingdom. These terminals offer games with fixed odds (as their name suggests), with their theoretical return to player known as RTP or payout ratio being fixed to a certain value and displayed directly on the machine.
The RTP varies for different games that can be played on these machines, but it is usually somewhere between 90% and 97%. The game played the most on FOBTs is roulette, which has a payout ratio of 97%.
In the UK, slot machines are categorized by the Gambling Commission into 8 groups (A, B1, B2, B3, B3A, B4, C and D), with each of them having different rules and regulations. The fixed-odds betting terminals fall into the B2 category, which currently has a maximum stake of £100, while the maximum prize from one game round is only £500. A bet which could result in a bigger win can’t be placed.
The FOBTs can be found mostly in physical betting shops, with other types of slot machines being used in other types of gambling establishments.
FOBTs and problem gamblers
One of the reasons why the government decided to take action with the FOBTs in particular has something to do with problem gamblers. The current maximum bet of £100 is just too high, which means compulsive gamblers can lose great amounts of money in just a few minutes, which is not acceptable.
Other groups of slot machines have significantly lower maximum stake limits, with all of them being at least 10-times lower than the FOBT limit. This huge discrepancy is likely to be fixed by the upcoming change, which will bring the maximum bet size for fixed-odds betting terminals more in line with other types of slot machines.
According to the published statistics, individual gamblers lost more than £1,000 more than 233,000 times in a 10-month period, with one player losing £13,777.90 in only seven hours. This excessive gambling and is exactly what the decrease in allowed bet sizes wants to prevent.
According to the Gambling Commission’s figures from 2016, nearly 14% of players using fixed-odds betting terminals are problem gamblers, which is the highest figure out of all forms of gambling. The FOBTs are easily accessible in any local betting shop and offer a quick fix for vulnerable players.
The effect on betting shops
It can’t be forgotten that the upcoming changes will also take a toll on the betting shops themselves. The Association of British Bookmakers is generally against the change, as the FOBTs amount for a significant part of the betting shops’ revenues. They expect over 4,000 shops to close and 21,000 employees to lose their jobs.
That being said, some bookmakers welcome the change. Paddy Power Betfair said, according to The Guardian, that the bookmaking industry had suffered reputational damage because of the FOBTs, which is why they welcome the government’s decision.
What about online gambling?
Online gambling is in many aspects similar to FOBTs. It can also offer a quick fix for problem gamblers and can be accessed virtually from anywhere. That’s why all online casinos have responsible gambling programs and give players the ability to exclude themselves from playing, which can be extremely helpful in preventing reckless gambling.
That’s something currently lacking from the brick-and-mortar shops, as pretty much anyone can just walk in and gamble. The new change will just limit how much they can lose in one game round and in a given amount of time.
According to online casino experts from Casino.guru, the change is good also for other reasons. “We find the idea of £100 maximum stake for a game with a maximum payout of £500 not in favor of players. We think that more volatile games are better for the players and a win limit only 5-times higher than the stake limit simply doesn’t allow players to place more volatile bets. After the change, the players might start preferring more volatile bets, which could result in losing less money, while also maintaining a chance to get close to the maximum win limit.”
Welcomed change
Whatever happens, it still remains true that the British gambling market is one of the most developed ones in the world. British gambling operators are closely regulated and the players are protected pretty well. That being said, gambling is very popular amongst British people, so protective measures are definitely in place, in order to decrease the number of problem gamblers in the general population.
