Recent statistics from the UK Gambling Commission have suggested that remote gambling on the internet is on the increase in the UK due to the overwhelming popularity of smartphones, laptops and tablets.
The most recent survey from the commission revealed that 11.8 per cent of respondents had gambled online in the four weeks previous to the poll, while the overall number of people who said that they gamble online rose by almost 0.1 per cent from last year’s figure. Free online bingo and the lottery are amongst the most popular online gambling games, with the latter attracting about half of the players who said they had played in the last month.
Online gambling is becoming more and more accessible as technology improves; playing bingo online is available at any hour of the day with few restrictions. Ofcom recently released the Communications Market Report, which stated that mobile phone users accessing the internet via their handsets have risen by a staggering 4.5 million in the last year, which lends weight to the increase in remote gambling.
10.5 per cent of respondents said that they had gambled in some way or other on a computer, laptop or tablet in the last month, 3.2 per cent used their smartphones while only 1.4 per cent gambled through their TVs. The rise in accessibility of the internet has been blamed for the decrease in attendance in bingo halls across the country in recent times.
In 2009, gambling in general was at a lower level than it is now, with 55.2 per cent of respondents admitting to a recent gamble, but that number has been increasing ever since. 55.5 per cent gambled in 2010 while that figure has jumped to 56.7 per cent this year.
Considering this widespread availability of the internet and internet-ready devices, irresponsible gambling is a real concern for the government, which is why John Penrose, the Minister of Tourism and Heritage, announced plans earlier this year to combat it. The proposal will protect the British public from gambling addiction by making it compulsory for gambling organisations to have a licence to operate in Britain, whether they are based on British soil or overseas.
He said: “The current system for regulating remote gambling doesn’t work. Overseas operators get an unfair advantage over UK based companies, and British consumers who gamble online may have little or no protection depending on where the operator they deal with happens to be based.
“So our new proposals are an important step to help address concerns about problem gambling and to plug a regulatory gap, ensuring a much more consistent and higher level of protection for those people in the UK who gamble online.
“We will create a level playing field, so all overseas operators will be subject to the same standards and requirements as those based in Britain, as well as being required to inform the Gambling Commission about suspicious betting patterns to help fight illegal activity and corruption in betting.”