Dave, 32, a construction worker, won £300 in a few minutes, but lost it in 20. At Stanley Racing turnover rose from £822m to almost £1.5bn, while gross profit at the Tote rose by 40 per cent. All attributed the rise to the FOBTs.By contrast, the annual revenue at the National Lottery, which is played by 70 per cent of the adult population, is £4.5bn a year.But the industry says an independent review by Mori found there was no evidence that the machines are addictive. It says that its voluntary code of practice has reduced the maximum bet to £15 a time and limits the number of machines in each outlet to four. It says the Mori report also found that only 0.6 per cent of the adult population use FOBTs.Professor Peter Collins, chief executive of GamCare and director of gambling studies at Salford University, said: "The difference between the number of users and turnover is a great mystery. William Hill reported an increase in turnover of 93 per cent in 2004, to £4.75bn. Virtual roulette is designed to do this."GamCare, the support group for gamblers, will in April release a study that is expected to report a dramatic increase in the number of people that have contacted it for help.Each machine generates a profit ranging from £380 a week at William Hill, to £188 at Stanley Racing.
"Virtual roulette" machines operate like the real thing and account for a dramatic rise in bookmakers' income. Turnover at Ladbrokes, for example, increased £3bn in 2003-04.Now the machines, or fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs), which also accept credit and debit cards, are under fire as more people become addicted.Dr Mark Griffiths, professor of gambling studies at Nottingham Trent University, said: "If I wanted to design a machine that would keep people in addictive behaviour patterns, then I would invent something that you could gamble a lot on again and again. In thousands of smoke-filled rooms on high streets around the country a gambling revolution by stealth is under way. So convinced is he of the truth of this and other claims that he plans to stand against his former employer, the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, at the general election. Not for this man the emollient, languorous language normally associated with his profession.
It is being done for the [sake of] politics as far as we can see," one told The Independent on Sunday.A spokesman for the Department of Health said a pilot scheme in which 8,500 asylum seekers were tested for TB had already identified 10 cases: "It's good for the individuals concerned that these cases were detected and it's good for the public health of this country."Tony Blair accused Michael Howard of seeking to "exploit" the issue of immigration last week after the Tories unveiled proposals to screen would-be migrants for TB and HIV/Aidsbefore they leave their own countries.. "It exposes as hypocritical our post-Abu Ghraib pronouncements and undermines our moral standing. It obviates my efforts to get the Uzbek government to stop torture [if] they are fully aware our intelligence community laps up the results." When this memo was leaked to the press, the Foreign Office argued that he could no longer stay in Tashkent.Now he is free to pursue the issue as a private citizen, Mr Murray says: "We argue that we don't carry out or instigate torture ourselves, but if information from it comes our way, we won't refuse it. "I could see from the codes that it had gone from Uzbek intelligence to the CIA, and was then issued by MI6 as part of intelligence sharing.
