16/03/2013

Betting shop association throw toys out of pram

I'm a bit shocked at what I've just read, yet a bit excited too. Why? Because I've just noticed an online campaign by the Association of British Bookmakers called 'Back your local bookie'.

After giving a few vague statistics and telling everyone how many jobs they provide, once you click on the campaign section your led to a sob story about how anti-betting shop campaigners are trying to take away the rights of gamblers in the UK by lowering the stakes of the prizes which has been proposed by gambling law reform campaigners to curb the destruction caused by these highly addictive machines.

Fixed odds betting terminal machines haven't been around too many years but it seems pretty obvious that the association of British Bookmakers Association feel highly threatened by a few groups and individuals that have been putting the spotlight onto the destructiveness of betting shops and electronic roulette machines.
The campaign itself - http://www.backyourlocalbookie.co.uk appears a desperate attempt to hold onto the thing that gives them a huge chunk of their profits.

I can understand why they have been dubbed 'the crack cocaine of gambling' because just going through the experience of using them myself I know how they get your blood going and you can come off those machines shaking or even feeling sick.

But the ABB are now screaming, wailing and throwing their toys out of the pram because it looks like people are listening.
They can't bury the facts any more , it doesn't matter how much public-relations propaganda they put out in the media they'v got too greedy for their own good and people know the destruction.

For example, coming back from the Westminster demonstration I did last year I still had plenty of flyers on me so I decided to hand them out on the train and carry on getting people thinking. Almost everyone I spoke to said that once they'd thought about it they realised they knew someone with a gambling addiction and the effect it had on lives.

Despite the Neuroliberation campaign going very slow after the last few months (I'm a little unsettled in life at the moment) there's still been lots of campaigning going on from other groups and also one or two new action groups focusing on FOBT's and great work as usual from GRASP-GROUP.ORG

Well I'd just like to say to the ABB, that putting out a campaign that screams 'victim' when you  are blatantly refusing to even meet campaigners halfway won't get you anywhere, because people already are seeing the truth now, there's too many stories and too many crime stories in the newspapers now. You can't hush this!

Also putting together all these vague and not-so-true facts also won't get you that far because people like me will simply debunk it and inspire people to see through your lies! (look out for that in the future)
But thank you for the update, seeing this campaign come to light I imagine is every gambling-reform campaigners dream come true. It's certainly made my day and give me hope that things are changing and that the power is being given to those that care about the honest facts instead of those with many skeletons in the closet.