:00:12. > :00:19.Two years ago my world fell apart when my partner took his own life.
:00:20. > :00:25.Now Panorama is helping me investigate the gambling machines he
:00:26. > :00:29.said drove him to suicide. It is a vicious circle, I wish I could stop
:00:30. > :00:35.and get control over. I meet the scientist who can see inside the
:00:36. > :00:38.mind of a gambler. We've got to get people to realise that gambling is a
:00:39. > :00:44.serious disorder. It is not a failure of will. It is a brain
:00:45. > :00:52.disorder which is preyed upon by the gambling industry. I discover an
:00:53. > :00:56.industry divided over the high intensity high-stake gambling on our
:00:57. > :01:01.high streets. I think they are immoral. They are using numerous
:01:02. > :01:04.problems, suicides, people losing control, smashing machines up. A
:01:05. > :01:09.danger to the staff on site. It is just wrong. And the former boss of
:01:10. > :01:13.one of the industry's biggest bookmakers tells me their toll on
:01:14. > :01:17.society is just too great. There is no challenge other than a moral
:01:18. > :01:20.challenge. What if it was one of my children who was addicted? How would
:01:21. > :01:40.I feel? My name is Wendy Bendel and I want
:01:41. > :01:43.people to understand that problem gambling is not just
:01:44. > :01:47.about losing money. It's a compulsion that
:01:48. > :01:54.can destroy families. Lee and I were together
:01:55. > :01:57.for seven years. He wrote a confession blaming
:01:58. > :02:11.a specific type of gambling. My main gambling focus
:02:12. > :02:13.is the machines It's quick and easy to win
:02:14. > :02:16.and to lose in a short I've been this way for so many years
:02:17. > :02:22.and keeping it to myself for so long Lee's gambling spiralled out
:02:23. > :02:30.of control when he started playing electronic roulette on fixed-odds
:02:31. > :02:35.betting terminals known as FOBTs. You can find them in every
:02:36. > :02:40.betting shop in Britain. They offer a dangerous combination
:02:41. > :02:43.of high stakes and the chance And players can lose sight
:02:44. > :02:53.of what's important. I love and support you, Wendy,
:02:54. > :03:02.to be there for you at all times. I know with your help I'll get
:03:03. > :03:05.through this and I will I know how lucky I am to have
:03:06. > :03:12.you in my life. There are three quarters
:03:13. > :03:14.of a million problem or at-risk Two years ago after a heavy gambling
:03:15. > :03:27.session on a FOBT, Lee disappeared. Later that night the police
:03:28. > :03:30.informed me that Lee had been When I phoned there and got
:03:31. > :03:39.the doctor, he told me that Lee had admitted a 20-year gambling
:03:40. > :03:41.addiction and tried to commit That was the first time I had
:03:42. > :03:46.a real awareness of how The day Lee was allowed home,
:03:47. > :03:52.I found a receipt from a betting I looked at it for at least 20
:03:53. > :04:01.minutes to make sure I wasn't crazy. When I put it in front of him,
:04:02. > :04:04.he went, you're wrong. Look at the time, and he point blank
:04:05. > :04:12.denied it to my face. I thought, why after
:04:13. > :04:15.trying to commit suicide, admitting an addiction,
:04:16. > :04:18.walking out of hospital Three months later,
:04:19. > :04:31.Lee went missing. I texted him saying,
:04:32. > :04:36.have you gambled? And then I got a call
:04:37. > :04:49.from the police telling me to go home because there was a unit
:04:50. > :04:52.waiting for me, so I knew. Lee had lost almost ?1,000 playing
:04:53. > :05:05.table roulette in a casino. I was 100% adamant he would not do
:05:06. > :05:14.that to me and to the kids. Then I had to identify
:05:15. > :05:17.his body and that was Stories like mine are making
:05:18. > :05:29.some in the gambling And that includes the former
:05:30. > :05:34.boss of one of the UK's They use profits from FOBTs
:05:35. > :05:45.to expand across Britain. The people who know about FOBTs,
:05:46. > :05:48.who've watched and observed and researched how FOBTs are used
:05:49. > :05:54.say that they are addictive, say that they are dangerous,
:05:55. > :05:59.and all the evidence points to those studies and those
:06:00. > :06:04.comments being accurate. The amount of money that is invested
:06:05. > :06:09.in them on an annual basis across the UK is,
:06:10. > :06:16.or should be, frightening. FOBTs earn the industry
:06:17. > :06:21.?1.7 billion a year and that generates almost ?400 million
:06:22. > :06:26.in gambling duty for the Government. I'm heading to London to find out
:06:27. > :06:29.what it is about FOBTs that makes Like Lee, Tony Franklin has been
:06:30. > :06:39.a gambler all his adult life. He says on-screen alerts
:06:40. > :06:42.and the new rules governing maximum bets, all introduced last year,
:06:43. > :06:45.are not enough to help those My whole life centred
:06:46. > :06:54.around these machines. I would play FOBTs at the expense
:06:55. > :06:57.of friendships, at the expense of my relationships,
:06:58. > :07:02.be it work, be it my wife, Ultimately it was my life,
:07:03. > :07:09.so you just get so immersed Look, here's four receipts
:07:10. > :07:20.and in the space of 59 There was only one guy
:07:21. > :07:32.in the shop anyway. Eight minutes later I've blown
:07:33. > :07:37.the ?500 and I've said, And this is you going up
:07:38. > :07:40.with your card? Just over half an hour later I've
:07:41. > :07:45.asked for another ?1,000. And then I've blown that
:07:46. > :07:48.?1,000 in 12 minutes Did you have that
:07:49. > :07:52.money in your account? Three-and-a-half grand
:07:53. > :07:56.in a betting shop? Sorry, who has
:07:57. > :07:59.three-and-a-half grand? It's an absolutely
:08:00. > :08:04.horrendous addiction. Has there been times where you've
:08:05. > :08:07.gone in and you've lost that amount of money and then thought,
:08:08. > :08:10.I can't go back, I can't tell my wife, I can't tell my family,
:08:11. > :08:18.I'm better not being here? Last summer, after having lost
:08:19. > :08:25.?4,500 and not feeling able, I just collapsed and I had those
:08:26. > :08:29.thoughts for a brief moment where I thought, you know,
:08:30. > :08:31.I would be better jumping I can't bear to think
:08:32. > :08:47.what was going through his head and the pain he must have been in
:08:48. > :08:54.to end his life. The Association of British
:08:55. > :08:58.Bookmakers declined to be interviewed by me for this programme
:08:59. > :09:20.but told Panorama: The fixed-odds betting terminal
:09:21. > :09:22.offer a choice of games of chance, David, you'll have to explain it,
:09:23. > :09:32.because I'm new to this machine. I asked one of Britain's top
:09:33. > :09:37.statisticians to explain the chance Well, there's already a lot
:09:38. > :09:46.of credit on the machine. We've got ?170, so let's be quite
:09:47. > :09:49.high betters here and let's put It takes about 20 seconds
:09:50. > :09:58.to get an answer. We'll put ?45 on this spin,
:09:59. > :10:13.and we've... If we'd got one of those
:10:14. > :10:29.numbers come up, we'd So they pay out 97.3%
:10:30. > :10:34.of everything that's staked, which is much better than almost
:10:35. > :10:36.any other form of Usually better than the lottery
:10:37. > :10:42.or anything like that. So you may think that this
:10:43. > :10:45.is actually a good deal And the problem is that that return
:10:46. > :10:52.of 97%, whatever, that's fine But the problem is people can't
:10:53. > :10:58.afford to gamble long enough to get When players suddenly realise
:10:59. > :11:05.the scale of their losses, some take their frustration out
:11:06. > :11:14.on the machines. FOBTs have earned a reputation
:11:15. > :11:18.for sparking violence, but the industry insists it doesn't
:11:19. > :11:21.have higher rates of crime relative Nevertheless, last year one major
:11:22. > :11:29.bookmakers chain recorded over One of the most dangerous strategies
:11:30. > :11:38.of all is to chase your losses, to increase the amount
:11:39. > :11:40.you're betting in order to try to recoup your
:11:41. > :11:44.previous losses. The spread of possible
:11:45. > :11:46.losses to gains just grows David believes this promise of high
:11:47. > :11:53.returns may actually encourage But again I'm using the phrase,
:11:54. > :12:04.I'm lucky. I'm supposed to be a serious
:12:05. > :12:07.scientist and I start talking Wasn't a red, wasn't any
:12:08. > :12:13.of these numbers. Watching someone like David get
:12:14. > :12:19.so absorbed made me realise that the solution to problem
:12:20. > :12:24.gambling isn't just about education. The machine is connecting
:12:25. > :12:28.to something much deeper. It also tells me about the numbers
:12:29. > :12:33.that have come up in the past. In the last nine spins,
:12:34. > :12:42.I think 29 has come up three times. Actually those numbers
:12:43. > :12:44.are completely useless. It's of no value whatsoever to tell
:12:45. > :13:00.you what's happened in the past. It can't help you in
:13:01. > :13:02.your betting at all. It is not only unnecessary
:13:03. > :13:04.information, it could very well be misleading because it might make
:13:05. > :13:06.people, including me, think that somehow there's
:13:07. > :13:08.a pattern that I could spot. Somehow I could beat the system,
:13:09. > :13:12.beat the odds. There is even a name
:13:13. > :13:13.for it - apophenia. It's a great name and it
:13:14. > :13:15.means seeing patterns The spinning of the wheel,
:13:16. > :13:21.the noises, the bounces, all help to draw in the gambler
:13:22. > :13:24.but have no effect on the result. Gamblers will argue
:13:25. > :13:32.they have the secret to make this big win that nobody else has done,
:13:33. > :13:35.even though they are losing and losing and continually chasing
:13:36. > :13:40.the money they've put in. So are the bookies in danger
:13:41. > :13:45.of putting profits before people? There are a number of industries
:13:46. > :13:48.where the moral dilemma is more So the tobacco industry,
:13:49. > :13:54.the drinks industry, the food industry and
:13:55. > :13:58.the gambling industry. None of us who've experience
:13:59. > :14:03.of working this those industries have been sufficiently strong
:14:04. > :14:06.on personalising that moral challenge and thinking
:14:07. > :14:09.about the what if. What if it was one of my children
:14:10. > :14:12.who was addicted? How would I feel about how
:14:13. > :14:21.we promote our offering? The Association of British
:14:22. > :14:52.Bookmakers said: Place your bets,
:14:53. > :14:53.ladies and gentlemen. No longer confined to casinos,
:14:54. > :15:01.gambling has exploded into our lives, advertised
:15:02. > :15:04.everywhere, available on every high Excluding the National Lottery,
:15:05. > :15:12.over a quarter of the adult population gambles, generating
:15:13. > :15:21.billions of pounds for the industry. But now scientists are beginning
:15:22. > :15:24.to reveal why some people find I want you to have a seat
:15:25. > :15:32.on the scanner bed there. I want to understand what happens
:15:33. > :15:40.inside the brain of a FOBT addict? We arranged for recovering gambler
:15:41. > :15:42.Tony Franklin to join a unique experiment by one of the world's
:15:43. > :15:45.leading experts on addiction, This will be the first time anyone
:15:46. > :15:53.has played something similar to a fixed odds betting terminal
:15:54. > :15:58.from inside a MRI scanner. The professor says it will reveal
:15:59. > :16:01.what's happening in Tony's brain Can I spend it all on the first
:16:02. > :16:10.spin? Gambling addiction is not
:16:11. > :16:13.a failure of will. It is a brain disorder
:16:14. > :16:15.which is preyed upon by Honestly I can feel my heartbeat
:16:16. > :16:20.rising just by looking Once you become addicted it is very,
:16:21. > :16:27.very hard to stop because you have changed your brain -
:16:28. > :16:32.addiction is a brain that has changed to become entrained
:16:33. > :16:37.to the desires of the gambling. We are going to start
:16:38. > :16:41.the roulette tasks, Tony. The team had written a computer
:16:42. > :16:45.programme for Tony, giving him three of his favourite bets to choose
:16:46. > :16:53.from and a fictional ?1,000 credit. They want to see how his brain
:16:54. > :16:56.responds to gambling and compare how it reacts to winning and losing
:16:57. > :17:03.in real time. When Tony is doing his task and he's
:17:04. > :17:06.looking at the roulette wheel and he's making a decision to bet,
:17:07. > :17:09.parts of the brain get turned And we think that there's probably
:17:10. > :17:18.a chemical basis to that. So, that is what we are expecting
:17:19. > :17:21.to see - the habit centres are overactive in people
:17:22. > :17:23.with gambling compared with normal When I saw Tony looking
:17:24. > :17:29.at the roulette wheel, You know, he said, "I can
:17:30. > :17:34.feel my heart rate going up already" Tony is a nice, intelligent,
:17:35. > :17:38.well-educated man, but yet he just turned and it was like that switch
:17:39. > :17:46.went and he didn't care. Tony is lying in the scanner,
:17:47. > :17:51.he is looking at the roulette wheel and we've asked him
:17:52. > :17:53.to place his bet. And the brain is not very active,
:17:54. > :17:59.maybe a little bit here he is thinking "what shall I do,"
:18:00. > :18:02.but it's pretty calm. Contrast that with what
:18:03. > :18:04.happens in the next one. Now here, this is when the wheel
:18:05. > :18:06.is spinning. That's a huge difference
:18:07. > :18:12.from there to there. But that's in a matter
:18:13. > :18:15.of seconds, as well, Exactly, absolutely,
:18:16. > :18:19.yes. So here, we see the visual system -
:18:20. > :18:22.the back of the brain He is watching really closely,
:18:23. > :18:26.he wants that ball bearing to come And now we look at the emotional
:18:27. > :18:34.regions and these are This is the anterior singular
:18:35. > :18:37.cortex, this is the insular and these are the two areas
:18:38. > :18:40.of the brain which makes sense of emotions, they generate
:18:41. > :18:43.the emotion he is feeling - And here we see,
:18:44. > :18:57.a very similar picture. In fact, the only real
:18:58. > :18:59.difference between winning and anticipating is this area here,
:19:00. > :19:01.and this is an area where I think we see
:19:02. > :19:07.the sense of satisfaction. But overall, winning,
:19:08. > :19:16.and waiting to see if you've won, the anticipation, they're both
:19:17. > :19:22.pretty much the same, and that's a really key
:19:23. > :19:24.point about gambling. It's not just the winning that
:19:25. > :19:27.counts, it's the taking part, and the taking part repeatedly
:19:28. > :19:30.when you don't win is as activating And when you are sitting at a fixed
:19:31. > :19:41.odds terminal, you are getting this every 20 seconds,
:19:42. > :19:44.so you can have hundreds of them. in the end it kind of becomes
:19:45. > :19:48.habitual, it becomes addictive. The Association of British
:19:49. > :19:51.Bookmakers told us 99.5% of people If Professor Nutt is right,
:19:52. > :20:09.and that Tony's brain has been altered by his gambling experience,
:20:10. > :20:12.then I think I am beginning to understand why Lee,
:20:13. > :20:14.despite all the promises he made, They don't care whether they
:20:15. > :20:25.are winning or losing, it is just the complete hold
:20:26. > :20:27.of placing the gamble, So, that is scary because they
:20:28. > :20:31.are not even gambling for the end product,
:20:32. > :20:33.they are gambling because they don't know what else to do
:20:34. > :20:40.and that's habitual. It must be hell for FOBT
:20:41. > :20:44.addicts like Lee and Tony when the opportunity to gamble
:20:45. > :20:47.is all around them. Retail bookmakers have
:20:48. > :20:49.re-focused their business to concentrate on the High Street
:20:50. > :20:51.and now make more profit The law limits each outlet
:20:52. > :21:00.to a maximum of four FOBT machines, but with more bookmakers come more
:21:01. > :21:02.machines and local authorities If you look down here,
:21:03. > :21:14.in just a few hundred yards you've got three Paddy Powers,
:21:15. > :21:16.three Ladbrokes, two William Hills. Now, why are there so many
:21:17. > :21:19.Paddy Powers in one place? Because they can only have four
:21:20. > :21:22.of these terminals in one shop, It's about picking up money
:21:23. > :21:27.from people who are coming in and The Association of British
:21:28. > :21:33.bookmakers says shops only open "where there is demand" but Newham
:21:34. > :21:36.has asked the Government to limit the number of betting
:21:37. > :21:41.shops on the high street. 92 other local authorities
:21:42. > :21:46.are backing the call. When councils across the country
:21:47. > :21:48.of different political hues are saying that we have got to stop
:21:49. > :21:52.this, then the Government should listen to that and do what's best
:21:53. > :21:56.for local communities. Because across the country
:21:57. > :21:58.they are causing problems The Government can do it
:21:59. > :22:01.without changing any legislation, they could do it tomorrow
:22:02. > :22:09.if they wanted to. The Government sets the rules
:22:10. > :22:13.and prize limits for the machines together with the Gambling
:22:14. > :22:35.Commission, who told Panorama... What the Government needs
:22:36. > :22:38.to recognise is that all addiction is not just about the individual
:22:39. > :22:40.and their vulnerabilities but also about the product
:22:41. > :22:42.and the environment which that Despite the power of addiction,
:22:43. > :22:48.some people are able Matt Zarb-Cousin, an ex-gambling
:22:49. > :22:57.addict, knew the FOBT machines well. I got addicted to these machines
:22:58. > :23:00.when I was 16, so I was underage when I first went
:23:01. > :23:02.into a betting shop. And during that time I got
:23:03. > :23:06.into thousands of pounds of debt and completely,
:23:07. > :23:08.nearly ruined my life. I was suicidal at one point,
:23:09. > :23:13.and thankfully had support from my family to get through it,
:23:14. > :23:16.but I know how addictive these machines can be,
:23:17. > :23:25.and had they not been in betting shops I don't think I would ever
:23:26. > :23:27.have got addicted to gambling. They are known as the crack
:23:28. > :23:30.cocaine of gambling? The crack cocaine of gambling,
:23:31. > :23:32.a label it deserves really, because they are the most addictive
:23:33. > :23:35.form of gambling and they're the form of gambling that problem
:23:36. > :23:37.gamblers lose the most on, spend the most time on,
:23:38. > :23:40.and when you consider that between 10 and 20% of problem
:23:41. > :23:42.gamblers have contemplated suicide, It's an epidemic really
:23:43. > :23:45.of fixed odds betting terminals on the high street,
:23:46. > :23:47.turning public spaces He blames the high street bookmakers
:23:48. > :23:57.for deliberately trying to confuse the issue,
:23:58. > :23:59.deflecting blame away The bookies say that problem
:24:00. > :24:08.gambling is about the person and not the product,
:24:09. > :24:11.they say that problem gamblers gamble on multiple products,
:24:12. > :24:15.and that is true. I gambled, like Lee,
:24:16. > :24:18.I gambled on fixed odds betting terminals and I put
:24:19. > :24:21.a football accumulator on, and I bought a lottery ticket,
:24:22. > :24:24.but I lost most of my money, and spent most of my time
:24:25. > :24:27.on the fixed odds betting terminal The reputational damage FOBTs cause
:24:28. > :24:39.is dividing the industry. The owner of Britain's biggest
:24:40. > :24:41.casino, someone who earns a very good living from gambling,
:24:42. > :24:46.objects to the way the book makers The betting industry
:24:47. > :24:50.is adopting a lot of the techniques that
:24:51. > :24:54.were developed by the spin doctors through the tobacco,
:24:55. > :24:57.the lung cancer, global warming. It's all those techniques of denial,
:24:58. > :25:00.then saying there's no evidence, then saying the evidence
:25:01. > :25:02.is inconclusive, then paying All with the intention
:25:03. > :25:11.of delaying the inevitable If you're making thirty-odd million
:25:12. > :25:15.pounds a week from a product that is insanely wrong on the high
:25:16. > :25:18.street, you will defend it to the Nth degree
:25:19. > :25:21.and that is what they are doing. I could have FOBTs in
:25:22. > :25:23.here if I wanted to. I choose not to because I think
:25:24. > :25:25.they're immoral. And when you put in a really hard
:25:26. > :25:31.gambling product, and by that I mean high stake, fast gambling product
:25:32. > :25:35.in a very easy to access ambient gambling location like the high
:25:36. > :25:39.street, and then you try to attract customers that tend to be younger,
:25:40. > :25:42.less educated, you've got You've got a recipe for making a lot
:25:43. > :25:48.of money, but a recipe for disaster The Association of British
:25:49. > :26:16.Bookmakers said: The former chairman of Paddy Power
:26:17. > :26:19.admits the industry's pursuit of profit has been part
:26:20. > :26:23.of the problem. He believes that only a tightening
:26:24. > :26:28.of regulation will bring about change, and responsibility
:26:29. > :26:33.for that lies with the Government. Essentially this comes down
:26:34. > :26:35.to tension between the needs of the industry and the
:26:36. > :26:38.needs of Government. The greater weight, in my opinion,
:26:39. > :26:47.sits with the cabinet, sits with the people
:26:48. > :26:50.who are making decisions, or who can make decisions to shift
:26:51. > :26:52.the balance away from FOBTs being a very rich source
:26:53. > :26:54.of exchequer returns, And also, curiously,
:26:55. > :27:06.doing financial damage because, as a result of the social
:27:07. > :27:08.damage that's been caused, there are people who are not
:27:09. > :27:10.functioning properly, not able to get to work,
:27:11. > :27:13.losing money and becoming That's why there needs to be a sea
:27:14. > :27:18.change, either to get rid of FOBTs all together,
:27:19. > :27:23.and that nobody has them, or that you reduce significantly
:27:24. > :27:28.what people can spend. And you reduce that from ?100 max
:27:29. > :27:33.to ?2 or ?10. It's still as addictive,
:27:34. > :27:35.but it becomes less addictive Meanwhile, gambling
:27:36. > :27:44.addicts like Tony face So, on Friday I had
:27:45. > :27:59.a relapse and lost. ..Lost all my money
:28:00. > :28:01.playing roulette. You can be 364 days free,
:28:02. > :28:10.but that one day when you are not strong enough it's waiting,
:28:11. > :28:14.and it got me on Friday. Thanks to Tony and the others I've
:28:15. > :28:18.met, I now understand Lee's torment. I hope the Government is now
:28:19. > :28:22.going to listen. Listen to the Local Authorities
:28:23. > :28:25.and Gambling Commissions as they call for tougher
:28:26. > :28:28.regulation on FOBTS. I'm not convinced the industry
:28:29. > :28:59.will get there on its own. Get your pills!
:29:00. > :29:01.Side-effects guaranteed. 'I'm a doctor.
:29:02. > :29:08.I believe that many common illnesses Patients want a quick fix.
:29:09. > :29:12.We need a revolution.