UK’s plan to tackle ‘crack cocaine’ of gambling lacks evidence

A row of three fixed-odds betting machines with a man sat at the machine on the right

Could be a dangerous game

Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty

Fixed-odds betting terminals make gambling away your cash a breeze – they let you place a bet of up to £100 on a digital game of chance once every 20 seconds. No skill is required to win, just pure luck. For some they can be a fun thrill, but for others they are so dangerously addictive that they have gained a reputation as the crack cocaine of gambling.

The machines are particularly prevalent in UK betting shops, and there have long been calls for the government to curb their most

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