Other victims, such as a Bradford school teacher who blew £60,000 in four months, I was unaware of until they had been banned from the shops. John was one of the first victims of a FOBT-driven gambling addiction I came across. But in 2012 I turned whistleblower on FOBTs through Panorama, and have continued campaigning to see them restricted since. Not a drug addiction, but one that has been likened to it even by the bookmakers that operate them he was hooked on the 'crack cocaine of gambling': fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs).įOBTs are roulette gaming machines that allow players to bet up to £100 per spin, 50 times more than the maximum that can be bet on most fruit machines.įor more than 10 years I helped to develop and integrate FOBTs across betting shops in the UK. He still had his job, though was heavily in debt, and aside from paying his rent most of his wages were spent funding an addiction.

He was an outcast from betting shops across Manchester, his wife had left him and he had moved into a one-bedroom flat on his own. When I caught up with John in 2009, he no longer discussed the football or the horses, nor did he have much time for banter.

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