Gambling industry in the UK

In the past few years the gambling industry in the UK has seen a significant growth. Activities such as sports bets, bingo and casino have registered a remarkable increase in participants and an important growth in revenue, from 8.4 billions British pounds in 2014 to 14.4 billions in 2018 (data: statista.com). Experts agree this is a direct consequence of the change of legislation for remote gambling in 2014, which has made online betting sites and casinos much more secure and trustable by the general public. The future of such industries seems to be one of constant growth, a theory funded on solid data from the past few years.

As mentioned above, the decisive increase in revenue for the gambling industry has begun with the new legislation for online gambling sites of 2014. This has significantly changed the perception of the public, which is now presented a strictly regulated online market which can be more easily trusted. New online gambling sites are launched on a regular basis, one example might be Race Casino - a secure site offering the latest technologies for complying to the strict rules in force in the United Kingdom.

As the data on betting, bingo and casino in the region show that remote gambling accounts for the largest share of the market, more and more players are investing in digital outlets that present lesser costs and a higher revenue. The consequence being that the gambling market in the UK is very competitive and dominated by few players. Many smaller brands try their luck on a regular basis, sometimes achieving their goal in capturing a niche of the market. Not surprisignly, according to data published in 2018, half of gambling enterprises including traditional land based outlets, are run by less than 10 people. In the same year, the gambling industry has provided jobs for for about 100 thousand employees of which the majority works in the sports betting sector, followed by casinos and bingo.

When it comes to the participants to the gambling industry, data show that the age is quite high, most plyayers being between 45 and 64 years old. This has changed since the regulation of online gambling in 2014, which has lowered the average age of consumption of such services. In 2018 there have been 36.6 million online gambling accounts open, of which 33.6 million were used to gamble during that year and thus considered active accounts. As the numbers of online gambling grow and more and more services are available over the internet (shopping, groceries, banking, postal services and so on) experts believe that it isa certainty remote gambling will be the future of the sector. The participation to gambling has nearly doubled since online gabling has been properly regulated, and the feeling of business being conducted fairly and it being strictly controlled by the UK Gambling Commission helps players trust online gambling sites.

Online gambling experts place their bets entirely on online gambling as the public gets more and more used to play and shop online. In the past few years, since the regulation of online gambling in 2014, the industry has almost doubled its size and is bound to a constant grow over the next few years.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes