The UK Treasury has cold feet about the department of culture, media and sport’s review of fixed-odds betting terminals, expected to recommend swingeing cuts to the maximum bet. It is also more than half the revenue of the high-street betting chains, and generates £400m a year in tax. Betting shops seep along high streets as conventional commerce recedes, but betting shops sell nothing but dreams. The government is considering lowering the maximum stake to £2, a move backed by all the other political parties, including the DUP, on whom it depends for its working majority. There is strong cross-party support to slash the maximum stake from Iain Duncan Smith to Tom Watson, who has offered Labour votes to overcome the resistance of Conservative libertarians.

Source: The Guardian August 20, 2017 18:56 UTC