More than £5bn was gambled on high-speed, high-stakes gambling machines in northern, urban cities and London boroughs with high levels of unemployment last year - four times the amount bet in richer rural areas in southern England where jobless numbers are low, according to an analysis for the Guardian.
Adrian Parkinson, who worked for the Tote, was involved with launching fixed odds betting terminals from 1999 until 2008, worked out the figures using a survey commissioned by Fairer Gambling and industry data. The huge sums involved, he says, are down to fixed-odds betting terminals which bring high-speed, high-stakes casino gambling to the high street. Of the top fifty unemployment blackspots, the profit from the terminals was more than £173m last year. By comparison in the 50 constituencies with the lowest levels of unemployment, the bookie's made just £44m.
The political divide is stark. The only Tory MP to figure in the top 50 poorest areas is Stewart Jackson in Peterbrough. There are no Labour MPs in the 50 constituencies with the lowest unemployment levels. Stephen Timms, the Labour MP for East Ham, said it was a "real problem" in his constituency which the figures suggest see £183m gambled in betting shops on these machines. "This is money people don't have. We have three BetFred shops on the high street in East Ham. Do we need them?".
Joan Ruddock, the Labour MP for Lewisham and Deptford, describes the industry as "preying on the vulnerable and desperate". She and Tottenham MP David Lammy have campaigned on the issue - alarmed about the spread of the bookmakers in their two London constituencies. The analysis shows there was £320m gambled in 60 betting shops. Lammy told the Guardian that "these figures conclusively demonstrate that the gaming machines are targeted at the most deprived communities in the country. Just like the pay day loan companies, the betting industry is determined to profit from poverty."
This theme is echoed in east London. In Walthamstow Stella Creasy, the Labour MP who has led the campaign against legal loan sharks, says the issue is not just the money being gambled - in her constituency that's more than £150m - but that the high streets are losing their variety.
"In communities like Walthamstow the failure to give communities the tools they need to ensure variety on their high street is having disastrous consequences for jobs and growth in our area. Well funded corporations are helping Payday lenders, betting shops and 24 hour off licenses are rushing to take over properties in their bid to expand profits and target residents already struggling to make ends meet. The side effect of this process is clear to see- they are crowding out opportunities for other companies to come to our streets, artificially inflating business rates and limiting our ability to regenerate our area as they make it unattractive for investment."
"It's a double whammy; a vortex sucking the prosperity out of local residents and also hampering the competition and diversity our shopping areas need to revive. As such, these challenges go beyond the damage any one toxic industry saturating an area does; policies like business rates and local planning policy need to be better aligned to help drive investment in communities like ours where its desperately needed.'
Clive Efford, Labour's spokesman on gambling, called on the government to give local councils to power to decide on whether bookmakers could cluster on the high street. He also said the government had scrapped "prevalance surveys" which would help tell policymakers "what was going on in high streets". "Ministers don't seem to taking this seriously at all".
The Association of British Bookmakers said the research was flawed. A spokesman said: "We have always believed that customers have the right to decide how they spend their money. As businesses, we take our social responsibilities extremely seriously which is why we voluntarily contribute £5m each year for the research, education and treatment of problem gamblers. Without this source of funding, many charitable services would not be available."
The tables below show the number of betting shops and gross amount gambled last year by parliamentary constituency. There is a table showing the data by the 50 worst constituencies for the number of unemployed and the 50 with the least unemployment. Can you do something interesting with the data?
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