Gambling machines. I'm seriously impressed.

[mistermack]

The UK government is going to cut the maximum stake on FOBT machines (fixed odds betting terminals) from £100 to £2.

This is a serious surprise to cynical old me. While I welcome it, I still can't quite believe that they are going to do it.
The bookies are screaming blue murder. It's free money to them. Place a machine against a wall, plug it in, and it makes you thousands every week. The more you have, the more you make.
They are threatening to close lots of betting shops. Duuuuuuuuuhhhhhh.
That's another good thing.

What needs to happen along side this though, if for it to be made illegal for credit or debit card payments to be made for gambling. Hefty fines on any bank that breaks the rule.
You need that to stop the morons switching to online gambling. Otherwise, this limit will just be a lose lose measure.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44148285

[Rum]

They reckon 2/3 of betting is now on-line unfortunately and the bill only pays lip service to that. Still it is a good start - especially as the government is due to lose out on revenue to something like 250 million I read yesterday.

[cronus]

This is for religious reasons, a attack on the poor and their choices, and does nothing to prevent heavy gambling at the stock exchange.

[laklak]

Meh. If people want to gamble they'll gamble. Looks like a great opportunity to start a numbers racket.

[mistermack]

Meh. If people want to gamble they'll gamble. Looks like a great opportunity to start a numbers racket.

It's not a ban on gambling. It's just a single-bet limit on the fixed odds machines.
You can still buy lottery tickets, and bet on the horses, dogs, general elections, football, who will score first, etc etc.

This is just directed against one particularly addictive kind of gambling that is wrecking lives.
It's just a start, that's all.

[laklak]

Gambling isn't ruining their lives, their lack of self control is ruining their lives. But I don't gamble, so I got no dog in this fight. I used to go to the casino on odd occasion and play a bit of blackjack, I'd take $100 and if I lost it I lost it, if I won then great. Haven't been for years.

[Rum]

Gambling isn't ruining their lives, their lack of self control is ruining their lives. But I don't gamble, so I got no dog in this fight. I used to go to the casino on odd occasion and play a bit of blackjack, I'd take $100 and if I lost it I lost it, if I won then great. Haven't been for years.

Gambling, perhaps like any potentially addictive behaviour is controllable early on it seems but it can be serious and not simply about self control. When it becomes compulsive it is clearly akin to the same dopamin related issues as chemicals can deliver.

The machines they are legislating over allow you currently to pump £100 every 20 seconds at fixed rate odds. There have been stories of people with compulsive gambling blowing a month's pay over lunch time on payday.

[mistermack]

Self control is not always a choice. Some people are born with more of it, and some acquire more of it as they grow up. Others don't inherit much, and are taught even less.

Just saying "lack of self control" is an excuse for not trying to make the world a better place.
You could legalise crack cocaine, if you applied that principle to everything.

In any case, there's more to it than a lack of self control. Gambling is a carefully formulated con, designed to convince people that they really can hit a lucky streak. It's true, you have to be pretty gullible to fall for it. But a lot of money goes into the psychology of gambling.
It's not fair to allow cons, just because it's only the gullible that fall for it.

A con is a con, and gambling is a legal con. Just because YOU wouldn't fall for it, that doesn't stop it being a con.

[Scot Dutchy]

It is also where they are situated.

[Tero]

Did they try wanking? Cheaper.

[Strontium Dog]

The terminally feckless will always find ways to ruin their lives. Will be interesting to see what replaces the bookmaker shops when they are all closed.

[Rum]

The terminally feckless will always find ways to ruin their lives. Will be interesting to see what replaces the bookmaker shops when they are all closed.

I think the lack of opportunity for the feckless reduces their chances of stumbling upon that ruinous activity frankly. Not that serious gambling addiction is a result of fecklessness - necessarily. A quick google indicates that it is taken seriously as a psychological disorder with close similarities to any other addiction.

[mistermack]

What sort of lack of imagination do you have to have, to view addiction as fecklessness?
Just because you haven't got that addiction yourself, is it that hard to get a tiny insight into what it's like?

I'm not an alcoholic, I'm lucky, I'm not that fond of large quantities of the stuff. But I can picture what it's like, having been a smoker at times, and having struggled at times to lose weight.
An addiction actually takes control of your mind, and changes the way you think, when you crave a fix.
Once you've given in, you're back to normal thinking, but the damage is done till the next time.

Ask any fatty, and they will tell you that they can be fiercely determined to cut down, till they get hungry, and then that determination vanishes.
People who get so fat they can't get out of bed, are in a different league from feckless.

[Rum]

Well said.

[cronus]

How can you be feckless whilst poor? The choice to be feckless requires a wad of cash to be feckless with. And if someone doesn't learn from losing too much of their monthly wad a few times at the bookies then that is stupidity not addiction. This change is religious inspired small mindedness that pretends to be moral guardians whilst robbing people of their adult choices.