Quote:
Originally Posted by Kizzy
They had competition with other stores when there were only stores then other online sites when they came along... the fixed odds terminals are not going the stakes are just being lowered, they could effectively still take as much of pepoles money...it just might take a bit longer to lose every penny you earn  |
Not sure what you're getting at.
Basically, the industry took a hit when online gambling took off, but a lot of shops still retained a healthy customer base thanks to the FOBT terminals.
Now, the FOBT terminal rules/regulations have took a hit meaning they're losing a lot of their high staking customers so the shops that relied on those machines due to the virtually non-existent over the counter turnover are now facing closures. TS explained it succinctly in another thread.
The FOBT's could still effectively take as much money as they have done but, realistically, they're not going to. £2 max stake severely reduces the amount that can be won and they're going to lose the major players who used to put unspeakable amounts on one spin.
And a lot of shops are having the number of FOBT's in their shop reduced in an effort to cut costs which is going to affect business. In my area (which has a staggering 24 shops
) they've all cut down to 2 and 3 machines per shop instead of 4 in all of them and at least half of them will probably close in the next few years.