UK bookies crow ‘I told you so’ after MPs FOBT report spanked

UK bookmakers are saying ‘I told you so’ after a parliamentary report that criticized the fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBT) in high street betting shops was found to have breached parliamentary standards.

In January, the Association of British Bookmakers (ABB) called for “an urgent inquiry” into a FOBT report compiled by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) that called for a reduction in the maximum stake available on FOBTs from its current £100 to just £2, as well as a reduction in the current maximum of four FOBTs per shop.

The ABB took issue with the report in part because the APPG had relied on funding from numerous organizations that stood to benefit from FOBT curbs, including operators of UK casinos, arcades, adult gaming centers and pubs, as well as the manufacturers of the gaming devices that these other venues offer to customers.

On Tuesday, Kathryn Hudson, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, released the findings of her investigation. It includes a letter to ABB CEO Malcolm George stating that the APPG’s report was guilty of four separate breaches of transparency rules, including its failure to disclose that the APPG had received eight months’ worth of free secretariat services from Interel, a public relations firm working for the ABB’s gaming rivals.