Poor little gambling companies get well again

Having taken something of a hit while the regulator strove to decide how best to deal with them and their gigantic profits, shares in the big gaming companies recovered substantially after the former said the limit of spending on FOBs (Fixed Odds Betting terminals) should only go down to 30 quid every 20 seconds instead of the 100 smackers you are allowed to lose at the moment.

Losing only 90 pounds a minute rather than 300 is obviously an improvement. Just not much of one.
When I learned the rudiments of psychology at medical school, I heard that of all the ways to persuade any animal, including humans, to do any given thing, the most effective method is what is called “positive intermittent reinforcement” In other words, you don’t reward a given behavior every time, just every now and then. This works much better than aversion therapy, where the contrary behavior is punished. Just rewarding once in a while is almost guaranteed to maintain the desired behavior. Which is why FOB terminals are so addictive. You let people win just often enough to keep them hoping, but not enough to give them any real chance of ending with a profit at the end of any given session.

“Oh, please don’t bring the figure down!” Bleat the gaming companies. “Thousands of jobs will be lost!” When slavery was outlawed in the 19th century, thousands of people were put out of work, and a good thing too. Hopefully they went off and found less hideous ways of making a living. If the frug trade stopped tomorrow, millions of people around the world would be out of work. Would that be such a bad thing? Yet when it comes to an only marginally less pernicious activity like running FOB terminals, suddenly it’s beyond the pale.

The government and its “independent” regulator had a real chance to make a difference with this. Bringing the maximum down to 2 pounds, or even 5, would have been a real advance, and still allow the gaming companies to maintain their position as some of Britain’s wealthiest concerns. But no, they went with greed, doubtless influenced by the very powerful gaming lobby, who seem intent on fleecing thousands of Britains poorest people. Why does the government like FOB terminals? Simple: tax revenue. They generate 1.5 billion in tax exact year. Who cares if people get ripped off?

Gambling has been a popular pursuit in cultures around the world for millennia. They absolutely love it in the Far East, where Macao now takes in more revenue even than Las Vegas. But that doesn’t mean governments should encourage it. Which is what our government is doing right now. Shame on them.