Culture Secretary backs safeguards to curb gambling

New safeguards are to be introduced in an attempt to curb addiction to high-stakes gambling machines in betting shops, according to The Sunday Times (£).

Bookies will no longer be able to advertise the machines in their windows and alerts will flash up if gamblers play for more than half an hour or deposit more than £250.

The changes are being supported by Maria Miller, the culture secretary, to curb the huge amount of money being lost on the machines.

Writing in the newspaper, Ms Miller said: "We want a successful gambling industry but not at the price of public protection. Player protections must be made mandatory so that every bookmaker must abide by the new rules.

"I have asked the Gambling Commission to make this happen. In the future, these rules will therefore form part of the operators' licence conditions and bookmakers will have to accept them or not be able to trade."