Check out some of what Matt Zarb-Cousin had to say when I spoke to him in November...
On a blustery Thursday lunchtime in early November, I met with Matt Zarb-Cousin, from the Campaign for Fairer Gambling. They aim to make the gambling industry fairer for the consumers, not the “gambling sector operators, the politicians that approved it, or the regulators that should enforce it”. He has a personal attachment to the cause. As a young man at just 16 years of age, he developed an addiction to gambling.
What started out as a harmless bet on a game of football turned into an urge to spend his money on Fixed Odds Betting Terminals – dubbed the crack cocaine of high street gambling. These machines are available in pretty much every gambling shop across the country.
FOBTs have been in the news a lot this year – and hit the headlines after Sports Minister Tracey Crouch MP resigned because of delays to the implementation of a stake reduction. Currently, you can gamble up to £100 on these machines every 20 seconds – an amount that campaigners felt was way too high.
I spoke to Matt shortly after Ms Crouch’s resignation, but before it was announced that the stake limit reduction to £2 was going to be implemented in April 2019.
Below, you can hear him tell me a little bit about his addiction, how it developed and how he recovered.
You can hear the full High Stakes documentary, including Matt’s take on advertising in football, coming soon!
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