‘He’s sweating and rubbing his nose. Within minutes, he’s lost £400 on the machines’

A crackdown on fixed-odds betting terminals is on the way. After a day at the bookies, the Observer’s reporter discovers the true extent of the problemTwo in the afternoon and I’m in a Ladbrokes on Caledonian Road in one of the grittier parts of north London. A few yards from a pawnbroker offering Cartier watches for a touch under £2,000, the bookmaker is one of four within 500 metres.Paddy Power recently opened the fourth betting shop in a former solicitors’ office after