The problem of gambling in the UK

The number of British gamblers

Statistically there are more than 2 million people, who could be considered gamblers or at high risks of becoming ones. This means that the government of the country fails to perform all the needed measures and steps in order to manage this problem. People continue to watch gambling ads and have access to gambling facilities. There is an evident need to increase the pace of introducing of changes and address the problem of gambling.

Online gambling participation in 2019:

Source: Gambling Commission report

The problem of gambling in the UK

According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists nine persons of every 1000 in Britain face the problem of gambling. Gambling us a serious challenge, as it makes an individual lose control over his actions and choices and lose understanding of time, spent on gambling.
Gambling leads to negative financial outcomes, since individuals are not able to stop and to control their activities, they have debts, they risk losing their houses and all their money. 

Gambling and finance

Financial problems are inevitable outcomes of gambling. Individuals forget about the need to control their expenses, as soon as they start to gamble. As result, they do not simply lose their money, but they gain a lot of debts, which they are not able to cover any more.

They start taking the money from their bank cards and then borrow from friends, use the system of loans until they do not have a single chance to find more money. Usually this happens at the moment, when the whole family is financially exhausted and reaches the limits.

Gambling and money expenses

Within the period between October 2017 and September 2018 there were around £14.5bn spent on gambling activities in the UK. This figure includes various kinds of bingo games, as well as betting on sports or horse racing. Speaking about online gambling, it makes approximately 38.8% of the total spend.

The categories of people, who tend to be involved into gambling

One of the most popular gambling activities is the National Lottery. Around 28% are the participants of it on a regular basis. Most of the gamblers are individuals between 25 and 34 years old and around 40 % of them inform to have participated in at least one gambling option within one month. If to compare men and women, men constitute greater percentage of gamblers in the UK. Usually home computers or mobile phones are used for gambling.

Gambling advertising rules in the UK

One of the approaches towards managing the problem of gambling and online gambling was introduction of new regulations for its advertising. It is not legal to advertise gambling to individuals, who are younger than 18. Gambling companies are not allowed to use either animated characters or celebrities from various shows and films, who “appear to be” younger than 25 in their advertising campaigns.

Taking into consideration the statistics of the Gambling Commission that at least 14 % of 11 to 16-year-olds gamble once a week. (Gambling Commission). This is the reason, why making the rules for gambling and gambling advertising stricter, could be considered an important step towards protecting children and young adults from becoming addicted to gambling.

Online gambling and young people in the UK

If to compare the statistical data of in-person gambling with online gambling by young people between 11-16, then it is evident that only 3% of them used online resources. However, this figure started to gradually increase from 2018.

This could be explained by the growth of the time, which is actually spent by adolescents online, as chatting online, using social media are nowadays the most popular activities for population of these age groups.

Source: Gambling Commission report

Logically, more and more young people started to play online games, including gambling-style games. The most commonly mentioned here are fruit/slot machines. Most of these young players tend to use the accounts of their parents. In some cases young people use their pocket money to open loot boxes or packs.

Source: Gambling Commission report

Attitude of young people to the problem of gambling in the UK

Most of young people are aware of the negative consequences of gambling and of the fact that this activity is rather dangerous. Statistically up to 60% of all young people are informed about actual risks of gambling. Only one teenager in ten would agree that it is normal and acceptable to gamble for the people of their age on a regular basis.

At the same time it is not possible to ignore high degree of exposure to gambling advertising. Around 69% of young people see these advertisements regularly, when they are online. Although most of them do not react immediately to them, 7% of young people still react and start to gamble.

The most popular gambling activities in the UK

The residents of the country tend to actively participate in the National Lottery, which is considered to be one of the most popular modern gambling activities. In addition there is a variety of other lotteries and scratch cards. The second position is occupied by football and horse racing, which are the most popular betting activities in the UK. Most of the gamblers participate in their chosen activities at least once per week, which is a significant increase in comparison to the year 2018.

Mobile phones and gambling

Mobile phones continue to be the most popular method for online gambling for users of various age groups. There is at least 50% increase in the number of mobile phone gamblers between 2018 and 2019. Mostly these gamblers belong to younger age groups – 18-24 years old, whereas about 66% of individuals between 35-44 years old use mobile phones for online gambling. More than 50% of all online gamblers create more than one account and 20% of them have more than five online accounts. They do not gamble only during their free time, but also do it from their workplaces.

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