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3. Gambling Industry News Uk Headlines
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5. Gambling Industry News Uk News

October 2017 to September 2018, saw the GGY, OR Gross Gambling Yield, of the UK’s gambling industry hit a staggering £14.5bn. Gambling enterprises are required to pay the UK government a minimum of 15% tax on any amount up to £2,370,500. The tax then increases accordingly to 20%, 30%, 40% and 50%. Thanks to these astonishing numbers, the gambling industry has cemented its place as one of the UK’s largest and most profitable industries.
While there may be many people who disagree with gambling from a moral standpoint, and many who argue that vulnerable individuals are at risk of gambling addiction and therefore tighter controls should be imposed upon the industry as a whole, there is no denying that the UK gambling industry is a mainstay of the UK economy.

The Pieces of the Pie

Jul 25, 2020 But it’s not all positive news, as Westminster looks primed to make sweeping changes to the UK’s gambling laws. A cross-party group of MPs recently called for a government review of the UK’s. Jan 28, 2020 The industry kept on growing, and the gross gambling yield in the UK grew from £8.4 billion to £14.4 billion between 2011 and 2018, with most of that growth due to the online industry. The industry kept on growing, and the gross gambling yield in the UK grew from £8.4 billion to £14.4 billion between 2011 and 2018, with most of that growth due to the online industry. NewsNow aims to be the world's most accurate and comprehensive aggregator of gaming industry news, covering the latest developments, publishers, studios, analysis and more from the best online news publications. Every story from every site is brought to you automatically and continuously 24/7, within around 10 minutes of publication. The latest statistics from industry regulator the Gambling Commission show that a fifth of us have gambled online in the last four weeks. Last year the sector made £4.7bn from online bets out of.

The UK gambling sector can be divided into a number of different areas, namely; online gambling, betting shops, bingo halls, land-based casinos, arcades and lotteries. Of these, online (or remote) gambling – which includes online betting, online casino games, online bingo and online lotteries – is responsible for the lion’s share of the profits; 39% or £5.6bn GGY. Land-based bookies come in second at 22.1% and the National Lottery follows closely at 20.6%. Traditional casinos rake in 7.4% and old-school bingo halls are responsible for 4.7%. 2017-2018 saw a slight downturn in overall profits compared to the previous years, however; the numbers still indicate that the UK’s love of gambling remains strong and true.

Online Revival

New and improved UK online casinos cater specifically to the UK market. Many casino brands have versions of their casino sites for players outside of the UK, however; if a casino brand has sites that cater to a worldwide audience, their UK players will be redirected to the UK version of the site in order to ensure that the UK economy benefits from their GGY. There are hundreds of excellent new casino sites available to UK players, so many in fact that it can be a mammoth task for users to sift through them and find a site that suits their specific needs.
This is where another branch of the gambling industry comes in to play; the casino review sites. Review sites are run by industry experts that know exactly how things work behind the scenes; in other words, they know a good casino when they see one. These sites cultivate stellar reputations for delivering up-to-date information on everything casino-related and for providing players with meticulously curated lists of the best new UK online casinos on the market. We recommend following their advice whenever possible.

New Legislation

In response to the question of moral responsibility and the protection of vulnerable individuals, the UK government have imposed strict regulations and guidelines to combat the negative aspects of gambling. One of these measures was to introduce GambleAware, a charity charged with undertaking research on the negative aspects of gambling and thereby providing free prevention and treatment services to those at risk. And more recently, the UK government announced a cap on betting limits for FOTB (fixed odds betting terminals) – reducing the limit from £100 to £2.
Many people equate the decline in overall profits to the fact that punters are no longer able to get carried away on FOTB machines, however; this is viewed as a positive rather than a negative. Another major change for the UK gambling industry was the introduction of the 2014 Gambling Bill. The UK Gambling Commission is now responsible for all UK casino sites and gambling enterprises. The legislation in place ensures that no enterprise can offer gambling options without obtaining a licence from the UKGC.

Taxation

The 2014 Gambling Bill has done much to improve the gambling experience for both players and the general public. One of the biggest changes was the introduction of the 15% tax on all profits generated from betting. This tax actually works in the punters favour because they no longer have to pay tax on any of their winnings. This tax also ensures that the UK economy benefits from the continued growth of the industry and justifies its somewhat dubious nature. There may have been a few grumbles from industry insiders, but the fact is that the public perception of gambling has become more favourable because of the amount of money generated from the taxation.

Gambling Industry News Uk News

Rules and Regulations

The Gambling Bill has also enabled the UKGC to take the industry in a new direction; out of the seedy shadows and into a new era of transparency and good business practices. Thanks to the UKGC licence and regulations, new online casinos in the UK, in particular, have been forced to improve their services in numerous ways and the results have been beneficial to both the players and the casinos. The remote sector has increased its revenue thanks to new online UK casinos that offer heightened security measures, improved data protection, regularly audited software providers and games, a wider range of trustworthy payment providers and vastly improved customer service. More and more players are now signing up for online casino accounts because they feel safe in the knowledge that the casino will play fair and that they actually have a chance at winning a bob or two.

Employment and Charitable Giving

We’ve made much of the fact that the UK economy benefits from the GGY, but we should also mention that the gambling industry is responsible for employing over 100,000 workers in the UK. An employee often earns an above-average salary and, therefore, gets taxed accordingly. The industry’s workforce also contributes to the economy by spending their hard-earned pennies in other sectors; housing, entertainment, technology and food to name but a few. And to end on a high note, we should also point out that from the 2017-2018 GGY alone, the National Lottery contributed over £1bn to charitable causes.
In conclusion, when it comes to the UK’s gambling habits the pros certainly outweigh the cons. And the UK’s GDP has benefited immensely from an industry that has pulled its socks up and revamped its image to become a stalwart of the economy.

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 15^th. 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.

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Scotland

Gambling Industry News Uk Headlines

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.

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Wales

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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.