Banks are joining the fight to stop bookies trying to get round a crackdown on gambling machines.
Just hours after the Government cut the stake on the addictive FOBT machines from £100 to £2 this week, bookies were about to launch new games to tempt gamblers.
High Street banks RBS and Santander are joining other lenders to introduce blocks that will let gamblers exclude themselves from using credit and debit cards to place bets or play machines.
But campaigners are furious that bookies are not taking responsibility for what is known as the crack cocaine of gambling.
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Carolyn Harris MP, chair of the Gambling Related Harm All-Party Parliamentary Group, said: “It is not acceptable for bookmakers and online operators to be looking to get round the rules and doing everything they can to maximise their own profits over supporting the vulnerable.
“They must step up themselves otherwise the regulators will need to do it for them”
The Government ordered the dramatic reduction in gambling limits on FOBTs – fixed odds betting terminals – after a Sunday People campaign highlighted how families of addicts were being torn apart by huge debts.
The machines were also sucking millions of pounds a year out of Britain’s most deprived communities.
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Bookmakers Paddy Power, Betfair and BetFred came up with new roulette-style games this week but dropped them after a warning from the Gambling Commission.
Helen Venn, executive director at the commission, said: “We are aware of these products and we are investigating.
“Where we see businesses failing to act responsibly in response to the stake reduction we will step in.”
