Silly season takes a serious turn on gaming machines front

Silly season or something far more serious? As the wait goes on for the findings of the government's review of gaming machines, two recent newspaper stories caused the issue to flare up again.

First the Daily Mail claimed that chancellor Philip Hammond had scrapped the review due to fears of the effect that a cut to a £2 maximum stake from £100 would have on tax revenues, although the story was swiftly dismissed as "fake news" by the minister overseeing the review, Tracey Crouch.

Then The Times weighed in with its own story saying the review was still on course and that instead the government was examining ways of making up for lost revenue by raising taxes elsewhere in the gambling industry, including online.