A recent news item published in Sunday Mail has revealed that gamblers that have been playing with fixed-odds betting machines have lost nearly £ 1.7 billion during last year. Profit figures of Britain’s largest bookmaking firms William Hill and Ladbrokes show good profits from these fixed odd betting machines which are now spread across the high streets of United Kingdom. These FOBT machines or betting terminals offer a wide choice of games like roulette, poker and other card games along with slot machines. In large cities like London and others across Britain these machines make profits of £ 1000 and above every week.
Profits of UK’s top bookmakers last year
Bookmaker Ladbrokes stated that its 8966 odd betting machines made profits of around £ 996 every week last year which is an improvement over £ 913 that was made during 2013. Rival booking firm William Hill witnessed a jump in its weekly betting machine collections from £ 897 in 2013 to £939 in 2014. Ladbrokes has stated that the revenues from betting machines have been growing at a steady rate of 5 percent every year which is likely to continue in near future. Both these top bookmaker firms now own nearly half of the 33000 betting machines spread across Britain and the rest are owned by Paddy Power, Coral and Jennings.
Uproar against betting machines
Recent estimates show that nearly £46 billion are staked on these machines across Europe every year. Bookmaker Ladbrokes stated that around £11.8 billion was staked on its terminals in 2014. The addictive nature of these games and the high stakes which urge players to keep betting until they win something is worrying legislatures and social groups alike. The rising concern and outcry has urged bookmakers to make soothing statements that they are working to ensure responsible gambling among patrons by putting up warnings and urging them to set a personal limit on bets.
