Labour leader and hopeful new Prime Minister in 2015 Ed Miliband has promised that should he get into power that he will promise to remove Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs) from high street bookmakers.
He has also offered to give local councils more powers to stop what he called “clustering” of betting shops on town and city high streets.
Mr Miliband also said that he would change the 2005 Gambling Act to give councils the power to review betting shop licenses in their area in hopes that it will help to reduce the negative impact that gambling and betting in bookmakers may have on communities.
It is clear that the Labour leader sees the FOBT issue as a vote winner is areas of the country that FOBTs have been criticized for problem gambling, however the bookmaking industry says that without the machines many of their local high street businesses would go out of business as horse and dog racing betting declines with the move to online gambling becoming more popular.
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