Gamble while you drink proves too potent for ministers

Gamble-while-you-drink lotteries with up to 12 draws an hour and a jackpot of pounds 100,000 will be launched in 2,000 pubs, bars and cafes across Britain this month. The Government is poised to announce legislation to ban them, but is its decision justified? Fran Abrams asks why ministers believe that this is a punt too far.

To its opponents, it is a social evil which will create a lethal mixture of alcohol drinking and addictive gambling. To its supporters, it is a charitable enterprise which will cause less harm than fruit machines or scratch cards. But one thing is certain: rapid-draw lotto is coming to a bar near you.

Inter Lotto, the company which is running the new game in conjunction with charities such as Mencap and the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, is fighting a rear-guard action against ministers who have privately signalled their intention to ban the game. But even if the firm fails, the venture will run for at least six months while a new law is passed to stop it.

The organisers plan to build up to 10,000 outlets with an estimated annual turnover of pounds 500m, of which the charities will receive pounds 100m plus any unclaimed prizes.

This week, more than 40 Labour MPs backed a Commons motion calling for a ban on the game, which already exists in the US, Australia and Canada. It was drawn up by Claire Ward, the MP for Watford, who believes Pronto! will be a step too far.

The game will bring drinking and gambling for high stakes into close proximity, she says, and will also hand over too small a proportion of its profits to charity. The national lottery gives 28 pence in the pound to good causes.

"I'm not anti-gambling. I never have been and never will be. But sometimes you have to draw the line and way we have got all these things, do we want to take another step forward? I don't think we really do," she said.

Inter Lotto is chaired by Lord Mancroft, a Tory peer. He described the Government's proposed ban as "ridiculous, farcical and childish".

"I don't know what the Government's motivation is. It's like trying to comment on a blancmange which I can't get my hands on. Every time I have heard from them or spoken to them they have come up with something different," he said.

A proposed consultation had turned into a mere "seeking of views" and then into a straightforward ban, he said. It was unfair for the Government to talk of banning Pronto! when pubs already had 150,000 slot machines. The new game would be run as a social activity like bingo, he said.

Dr Mark Griffiths of Nottingham Trent University, who chairs Gamcare, set up with the gaming industry to fight addiction, has written a report for Inter Lotto on the game.

He said he would not call for a ban but had some concerns. For example, lotteries in pubs on very poor estates could induce people to gamble excessive sums in the hope of solving their problems. Longer periods between draws during the daytime would put off loners likely to gamble through compulsion rather than as a social activity, and keeping the sites in licensed premises would cut down the number of children who had access.

"There will be a small minority of people who have problems. Effectively you can play this game12 times an hour, but with a fruit machine you can play 12 times a minute," he said.