Paddy Power founder, Stewart Kenny, is alleged to have secretly lobbied the Irish government into banning the legalisation of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals in Ireland back in 2009.
I would love to be a ladybird on the windowsill of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs) session scheduled for January 11, 2017, after The Times claimed Paddy Power founder, Stewart Kenny, secretly lobbied against the legalisation of the machines in Ireland.
The session – called Testimony From The Bookmakers – is the final one scheduled before the APPG passes their findings to the person in charge of the Government’s Review of Gaming Machines and Social Responsibility Measures which includes casting a beady eye over the impact that FOBTs have on society. Paddy Power representatives will join BetFred, William Hill and Ladbrokes Coral in a session one assumes the bookies will argue for the right to keep the machines that collectively earned them £1.75 billion in the last year.
Kenny resigned from the Paddy Power board in August, but The Times article will go down like the Titanic in the inner sanctum of the Association of British Bookmakers (ABB) who incidentally boycotted the last APPG meeting saying it was nothing more than a ‘kangaroo court.’
The article states that Kenny recommended to the Irish Government that they should learn from the mistakes made in the UK and ban the introduction of the machines onto the Emerald Isle.
The founder allegedly said the machines are “particularly enticing to younger gamblers in disadvantaged areas,” before going on to say that the British Government is “as addicted to the tax revenue [from the machines] as vulnerable customers are to losing money in them”.
In the past year, that tax revenue came to £438m.
The ABB has always advocated that the machines are no more or less addictive than any other form of gambling as well as rejecting claims that they lead to an increase in crime.
Kenny is supposed to have told the Irish Government that the quick-fire play options make it impossible for the gambler to take the momentary pause required to assess the damage done to the wallet. He also said the regular near misses produced by the machines coupled by the bright lights and sounds make it difficult for punters to pass up the opportunity for a quick spin.
The APPG is hoping that the new government review team will seriously consider reducing the maximum stake from £100 to £2. Ireland doesn’t have to worry about such issues. They never legalised the machines.
Paddy Power has 1,400 FOBTs in 350 betting shops located around the UK
