Labour last night pledged to back a government clampdown on ‘crack cocaine’ gambling machines.

The party’s deputy leader and shadow culture secretary Tom Watson said the party supported efforts to limit the maximum stake on fixed odds betting terminals.

A government review is considering reforms to the machines which offer roulette, bingo, poker and other casino-style games in bookmakers shops.

The Mail revealed two weeks ago that the review had been kicked into the long grass amid opposition from Chancellor Philip Hammond.

Treasury officials are understood to be concerned that cutting the maximum stake to £2, as campaigners argue, would blow a £400million hole in tax receipts.

In a letter to Culture Secretary Karen Bradley, Mr Watson wrote: ‘If you need Labour votes to get this proposal through against the wishes of some of your backbenchers, we will provide them.

‘I am confident that between us, we have the numbers in Parliament to curb these addictive machines and the social and health problems which come with them.

‘I urge you to hold firm in your struggle with the Treasury on this. There are more than 34,000 FOBT machines in bookmakers’ across the country, and their numbers have doubled in a decade.

Gamblers can lose as much as £100 every 20 seconds.

In his letter, Mr Watson said the revenues were far outstripped by the £1.2billion cost of problem gambling because of ill-health, crime and homelessness.

In its manifesto, Labour pledged to cut the maximum stake to £2 and legislate to ‘increase the delay between spins to reduce the addictive nature of the games.’

Last week the Church of England urged ministers to push ahead with their crackdown, and in Saturday’s Mail, former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith branded them a ‘tax on the poor'.

One bookmaker, Paddy Power Betfair, also said it was open to reform.

Chief executive Breon Corcoran said he was 'almost ambivalent' about slashing the maximum stake.

He told trade magazine Gambling Compliance: 'The only thing we've asked the Government for is clarity.'

A review by the Centre for Social Justice revealed £1.7billion is lost on the machines every year.

It said: 'Stakes should be cut off beyond the £2 mark. This will protect users from falling into problem gambling, thus nullifying the corrosive effects that evidence has shown FOBTs to have in perpetuating poor mental health, violence and family breakdown.