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English in United Kingdom
by Glenn Baird - March 20, 2020
It was reported in the Financial Times yesterday that gambling groups who are experiencing a loss in revenue are trying to struggle through the cancellation of all sporting fixtures by pointing customers towards online casino gambling instead.
The broadsheet newspaper claims that chief executive of GVC, a mother company of Ladbrokes Coral, stated that the firm was not “closed for business” and that the push towards casino games was “working reasonably well”.
Gambling groups are reported to have upped the anti in their marketing of online casino games in an attempt to draw more customers in, something that has appear on TV and various forms of social media.
He went on to state that there has been an uptake in punters spending money on virtual racing, a biproduct of the foot-and-mouth disease that decimated horseracing years ago.
Software technology giant, Playtech have also added that they have seen an increase in the number of people playing bingo and poker.
However, analysists have claimed that the sporting postponements could create huge changes within the industry.
“This could be the end of the industry as we know it,” said Dan Waugh from the specialist gambling research firm Regulus Partners. “If, due to loans, the government owns most of the gambling industry it may not let it go back to the way it was.”
Essentially Waugh believes that this situation could produce a number of issues within the industry that could result in a backlash that could force stringent regulatory measures to be taken.
45 % of GVC’s profit for last year was made from sports betting, with it estimated that the sporting postponements could cost the company roughly £150m.
PaddyPower Betfair’s parent company, Flutter said on Monday that it estimated a £110m reduction in yearly turnover, with £30m a month in losses as a result of the closing of UK betting shops. The company made about £1.6bn in sports betting last year.
Morgan Stanley estimates that the hardest hit of all the big UK based betting companies will be William Hill who rely heavily on sports betting.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland sits to the north-west of mainland Europe. The United Kingdom shares a border with The Republic of Ireland and has coasts on the Atlantic Ocean, Celtic Sea, North Sea, Irish Sea and English Channel. The population of the UK is approaching the 67.6 million mark leading to a fairly densely populated land mass. The gambling sector in the United Kingdom is entirely regulated and licensed by the UKGC – the United Kingdom Gambling Commission. Should players resident In the UK wish to gamble with foreign based operators there is no history of this being treated as a criminal offence, but high levels of protection exist for UK residents playing with UK licensed operators.
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The above information is what we believe to be the the legal status of online gambling, however information on this topic is limited and hard to find. We accept no liability for any errors or ommissions. It is the reader’s responsibility to ensure that they know the legality of online gambling in their country before engaging with any online gambling service.