'Gambling machines to bring violence' to run-down town and city-centres

From February the cost of installing gambling machines will be significantly reduced. It's a development which could bring more violence to the High Street, says one industry insider.

From February 1, bookies will no longer have to pay a £2,500 upfront tax for every gambling machine they have in store. Instead, the Treasury will deduct 20 per cent from all profits from machines.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Adrian Parkinson, a one-time gambling boss who helped bring in casino-style fixed odds machines to the high street, says this could bring an explosion of addiction and violence to town and city centres.

He says that aggressive marketing techniques deployed by bookie chains, such as inviting ordinary people in to a store for a ‘tournament’, had turned ordinary people into addicts. They are sucked into playing new-style addictive gambling machines, which ca lead them to violence as they take out their frustration on the machines and sometimes staff.

Low rents have attracted more and more one-arm-bandit operators into run-down town and city centres throughout the country and, says Mr Parkinson, this is contributing to a further decline in the retail environment in these areas - although the industry claims it will actually lead to job losses and closures as they will be paying more.

Read the rest of this item from The Daily Mail here

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