“The launch of the Gambling Act Review has the potential to be a transformational moment for our industry in the UK,” says Peter Jackson, chief executive of Britain’s biggest gambling group. It is no secret that the United Kingdom boasts one of the most strictly regulated gambling businesses. As a matter of fact, there hardly is a country in the world that has a more regulated gambling.
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n response to rapidly escalating numbers of coronavirus infections, Downing Street announced a national lockdown on 20 March, closing all entertainment venues from music halls to casinos. It was more than four months until the government allowed casinos to reopen their doors to the public with reduced capacity and social distancing guidelines in place on 15 August.
Now, as parts of the UK start to face new lockdown restrictions to bring a second wave under control, we can see the impact the first lockdown had on the industry across the UK.
Covid-19’s impact on gambling
As a result of the government’s national lockdown, all land-based gambling venues in the UK were closed on 20 March. In one fell swoop this decision wiped off 50% of the revenues (excluding lotteries) of the British gambling industry.
However, it was not all bad news for the industry. Online operators saw a significant uptick in trade, with sites such as BestCasino.co.uk seeing a dramatic rise in traffic as players moved online. Without any significant additional marketing spend, industry figures for March 2020 showed a 25% increase in online slots use, 38% in online poker use and 40% increase in virtual betting use.
Detailed statistics that indicate the overall impact of the pandemic on the gambling industry will not be available to the public until midway through 2021 when companies accounts are published. Nonetheless, recent YouGov polling indicates a poor outlook for the sector over the next few months and Genting Casino’s announcement that they were planning to release 1,600 employees because of the pandemic suggests that land-based casinos face an increasingly uncertain future.
Different rules across the UK
A a number of casinos remain open to the public today, but with each nation imposing its own version of lockdown and English regions each on varying tiers, the situation remains uncertain.
England
The Westminster government finally took the decision to allow casinos in England to reopen on August 15th. Since then casinos in the country have been able to welcome in members of the public on the proviso that they implement a series of strict guidelines to staff and customers to limit the risk of transmission.
Over the summer when the transmission rates of the virus were low the majority of casinos in England were free to operate, albeit at a reduced capacity. However, earlier this month the government released plans for a three-tier system for England.
The system – medium, high and very high – is intended to tell people how severe the infection rate is in their local area. And with each tier comes increased restrictions on businesses and local populations.
At the time of writing Merseyside, South Yorkshire and Greater Manchester are all categorised as Tier 3 and as such have stringent lockdown laws that have forced casinos in these areas to once again shut their doors to the public.
Warrington, Nottingham and large parts of North and East Yorkshire are expected to be placed into Tier 3 later this week. To find out what restrictions are in place in your area, check the latest government advice HERE.
Northern Ireland
For the first few months of the pandemic Stormont largely followed the advice from Westminster. However, as the virus progressed, Arlene Foster and Michell O’Neill began to distance themselves from the chaotic last minute changes coming from Downing Street.
Northern Irish gambling venues did reopen over the summer months, but as a result of rising infection rates, Stormont took the decision to impose a strict four-week national lockdown earlier this month. Recent news of NI hospitals reaching intensive care unit capacity casts into doubt any hopes of an easing of restrictions any time soon.
Scotland
Edinburgh’s response to the pandemic shares many similarities with that of Westminster, but Nicola Sturgeon has been keen to take a tougher stance and impose restrictions earlier to better limit the impact on the Scottish health service.
Earlier this month new temporary measures were implemented that saw casinos in Aryshire & Arran, Forth Valley, Greater Glasgow & Clyde, Lanarkshire and Lothian forced to close. The Betting and Gaming Council have called this imposition “a huge blow” to the industry but has said that it remains hopeful of an easing of restrictions in the coming weeks and months.
Wales
Of all four nation states within the UK, Wales has arguably taken the toughest stance on Covid-19 restrictions. The country’s four land-based casinos all reopened in August, but the Welsh government’s firebreak restrictions forced all four Welsh casinos to close on 23 October. At the time of writing there are no concrete proposals or plans that suggest when they will be able to reopen.
The gambling industry in the UK is increasing at a rapid pace. Indeed, the industry has increased from being worth 8.4 billion pounds in 2011 to roughly 14.4 billion in 2018.
Why has this happened and what is pushing the increase? Well, there are a number of factors to consider here.
The Impact Of The Growing Industry
The new growth of the gambling industry is certainly bringing benefits to the economy. In 2018, according to statistics by the Statista there were more than 100,000 people employed in the UK gambling industry. Interestingly, the majority of these employees were in the betting sector with the number exceeding 53,000.
There are also now over 8,400 betting premises throughout Britain and yearly off-course horse betting alone brings a turnover of 4.32bn.
Despite there being a substantial level of jobs and roles in this sector, it’s interesting to note that the majority of gambling businesses were run with less than ten people. This suggests that businesses can be quite small and easy to handle. As such, they could be the perfect option for younger individuals who are just starting to enter the market.
The Gambler Demographic
It is worth exploring the demographic of the typical gambler. It is perhaps unsurprising to note that the main population of gamblers are quite old, between the ages of 45 and 64. However, there have been signs that gambling is becoming more popular with a younger demographic. This is true despite the fact that cases of underage gambling have actually decreased significantly.
How Do People Gamble?
Perhaps one of the main driving forces for the increase in the gambling industry is the extended number of options. It’s true to say that gamblers have more possibilities than ever on how they want to place a bet. While they can visit a local business, it’s also now possible and easier than ever to gamble online. The online gambling industry has been increasing steadily over the past few years and more people than ever are choosing this route to place a bet.
In 2018, there were more than 36.6 million online gambling customer accounts. These were registered at facilities approved and licensed by the Gambling Commission of Great Britain. While you might assume that most of these accounts were inactive, research showed that 33.6 million had been used in the past year. This suggests that people are taking advantage of this possibility and using it regularly.
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There is a massive variety of different online resources that people can use for gambling. Sites like 100Bestonlinecasinos provide information about the different possibilities, their benefits and the signup bonuses available to new customers.
As well as providing key information on the benefits of different resources, sites like this also help eliminate bad practices and rogue operators on the market. This is important as one poll revealed that trust in gambling has declined over the past seven years with many customers becoming cautious of unfair practices.
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Changes In Government
The government has taken strikes to ensure that the growth of the gambling industry while also guarantee that issues with fixed-odds betting terminals are eliminated. For instance, the government has increased the tax for online gaming throughout 2019. At the same time, machines have been forced to lower the maximum stake.
This is estimated to help reduce the tax revenue by £1.5 billion over the next five years. Taxes on gambling operators located outside the UK are also set to increase to cover any potential losses. It’s currently unclear how these changes are going to impact the growth in the UK gambling industry. Many have suggested that a restructure will be necessary while some companies may struggle to keep the doors open.
Despite this, there is little sign of the popularity of gambling in the UK diminishing. Indeed, gambling is more popular than it has been in years and this is certain to help businesses cope with the coming changes. One change that we could see is the further decline of the high street bookie as more customers turn towards online possibilities.
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It’s clear then that gambling is more popular than ever in the UK. This is undoubtedly due to an increase in available technology and more online options. Thanks to new tech it’s possible to gamble remotely on your phone or virtually any other tech device. It will be fascinating to see how far the gambling industry will spread over the upcoming decade and whether government changes will have an impact on the potential growth.
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