{"id":34334,"date":"2016-03-10T17:50:47","date_gmt":"2016-03-11T01:50:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=34334"},"modified":"2016-05-27T10:35:01","modified_gmt":"2016-05-27T17:35:01","slug":"ex-paddy-power-boss-slams-uk-gambling-industry-ftobs-and-socially-irresponsible-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ex-paddy-power-boss-slams-uk-gambling-industry-ftobs-and-socially-irresponsible-government\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Paddy Power Boss Slams UK Gambling Industry, FOBT’s and \u201cSocially Irresponsible\u201d Government"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Fintan
Fintan Drury, former Paddy Power boss, who believes that the UK government turns a \u201cblind eye\u201d to the problem. (Image: irishtimes.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fintan Drury, the former chairman of Paddy Power, has lashed out at the UK government and its \u201ctroubling partnership\u201d with the country\u2019s gambling industry in an op-ed in The Times this week.<\/p>\n

Drury, who fronted the Irish bookmaking giant from 2004 to 2010, described the modern gambling industry in the UK as one \u201cunchecked by any moral code,\u201d due to a cozy relationship with a government whose desire to boost Treasury coffers \u201coverride[s] consideration of acute social ills.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the heart of the matter is the country\u2019s fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs), gambling machines found in bookmakers\u2019 shops in almost every town the UK.<\/p>\n

FOBTs have been routinely dubbed the \u201ccrack cocaine\u201d of betting in the press. The machines allow players to wager large up to \u00a3100 per spin on virtual casino games like roulette and have been blamed for a rise in problem gambling, antisocial behavior and crime.<\/p>\n

Times Campaign<\/b><\/h2>\n

Paddy Power<\/a>, Drury\u2019s former company, brings in around \u00a393 million ($133 million) a year from FOBTs before deductions.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid\u00a0you know that it is possible for someone to gamble \u00a318,000 an hour playing a fixed odds betting terminal in any betting shop in Britain?\u201d demands Drury.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe industry does. So, to its shame, does the government but, as the estimated annual investment by gamblers on these machines runs to something like \u00a350 billion, the benefit to the Treasury means that Whitehall [British central government administration] turns a blind eye.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Times recently launched a full-tilt editorial attack on the gambling industry. The UK now had over 500,000 problem gamblers, it warned. This was an \u201cepidemic\u201d that had become \u201cso serious\u201d that doctors at the National Problem Gambling Clinic\u00a0had begun prescribing the drug Naltrexone, which is designed to help to combat alcohol and drug dependency, at great expense to the taxpayer.<\/p>\n

The newspaper later acknowledged that just five people in the whole county had been prescribed the drug for gambling-related problems at a cost of \u00a368 ($97) each for a three-month course.<\/p>\n

The figure of 500,000, it should also be noted, does not represent an increase in the instance of problem gamblers<\/a> per capita, which remains well below 1 percent of the population, at around 0.7 percent.<\/p>\n

New Regulations not Enough<\/b><\/h2>\n

While such statistics are problematic (the definition of \u201cproblem gambling\u201d can differ from study to study, for example, skewing results), the UK figures acknowledged by The Times are lower in comparison with many countries around the world, whose problem gambling figures often hover at around one percent of the population.<\/p>\n

There are also studies that suggest the percentage of problem gambling actually decreased in the UK between1999 and 2012.<\/p>\n

Despite the newspaper\u2019s questionable figures, Drury praises the Times investigation for exposing what he sees as the government\u2019s apparently complacent attitude to FOBTs and the damage they can cause to this small but vulnerable percentage of the population.<\/p>\n

New regulations, which have established that anyone wishing to bet more than\u00a0\u00a350 on the machines has to seek permission from a staff member are not enough, says Drury.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should deal first with the curse of FOBTs,\u201d he says. \u201cThe industry (partly in the interests of self-preservation) should lead the way and introduce some simple measures that would, at least, establish its awareness of the particular danger they pose.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fintan Drury, the former chairman of Paddy Power, has lashed out at the UK government and its \u201ctroubling partnership\u201d with the country\u2019s gambling industry in an op-ed in The Times this week. Drury, who fronted the Irish bookmaking giant from 2004 to 2010, described the modern gambling industry in the UK as one \u201cunchecked by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":34335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nEx-Paddy Power Boss Slams UK Gambling Industry, FTOBs and \u201cSocially Irresponsible\u201d Government<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Fintan Drury, former Paddy Power chairman, backs the Times\u2019 anti-FOBT crusade\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ex-paddy-power-boss-slams-uk-gambling-industry-ftobs-and-socially-irresponsible-government\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ex-Paddy Power Boss Slams UK Gambling Industry, FTOBs and \u201cSocially Irresponsible\u201d Government\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fintan Drury, former Paddy Power chairman, backs the Times\u2019 anti-FOBT crusade\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ex-paddy-power-boss-slams-uk-gambling-industry-ftobs-and-socially-irresponsible-government\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-11T01:50:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-05-27T17:35:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/image.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"330\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ex-paddy-power-boss-slams-uk-gambling-industry-ftobs-and-socially-irresponsible-government\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ex-paddy-power-boss-slams-uk-gambling-industry-ftobs-and-socially-irresponsible-government\/\",\"name\":\"Ex-Paddy Power Boss Slams UK Gambling Industry, FTOBs and \u201cSocially Irresponsible\u201d Government\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ex-paddy-power-boss-slams-uk-gambling-industry-ftobs-and-socially-irresponsible-government\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ex-paddy-power-boss-slams-uk-gambling-industry-ftobs-and-socially-irresponsible-government\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/image.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-11T01:50:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-05-27T17:35:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\"},\"description\":\"Fintan Drury, former Paddy Power chairman, backs the Times\u2019 anti-FOBT crusade\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ex-paddy-power-boss-slams-uk-gambling-industry-ftobs-and-socially-irresponsible-government\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ex-paddy-power-boss-slams-uk-gambling-industry-ftobs-and-socially-irresponsible-government\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ex-paddy-power-boss-slams-uk-gambling-industry-ftobs-and-socially-irresponsible-government\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/image.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/image.jpg\",\"width\":620,\"height\":330,\"caption\":\"Fintan Drury, former Paddy Power boss, who believes that the UK government turns a \u201cblind eye\u201d to the problem. 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