UK Gamblers Balk at Proposed Deposit Limits

The Betting and Gaming Council revealed the results of a recent YouGov survey which directly addressed the issue of whether the government has the right to limit how much the British public spends on gambling.

The survey also touched on what the public believed the result of going ahead with such restrictive measures would be. As one might suspect, the responses did not favour the government deciding what they could do with their hard-earned money.

UK Gamblers Deserve Better Treatment

Despite being one of the oldest legal gambling jurisdictions, the United Kingdom suffers from a lack of aligned thinking by its governing bodies.

The push-pull created by the pro and anti-gambling factions within parliament has resulted in some draconian decisions in the past and restrictions which made little to no sense considering the broader industry.

Michael Dugher, Chief Executive of the BGC, said

“Any changes introduced by the Government must be carefully targeted so that we protect the vulnerable and intervene on those showing signs of harm, whilst not driving the vast majority of millions of punters who bet safely towards the growing unsafe black market online, where there are none of the safer gambling protections used by BGC members.”

Three significant YouGov poll results support Dugher’s stance, with the people voting as follows:

1. 70% said they would not allow the government to run affordability checks.
2. 67% said compulsory spending limits would increase black market gambling.
3. 64% believe more illegal gambling will increase problem gambling rates.

The UKGC CEO is on record stating that he believes the danger of black market casinos is being blown out of proportion by the media. However, the reality is that the number of individuals gambling on unlicensed sites in the UK has doubled from 220,000 to 460,000, with total wagers projected as several billion Pounds Sterling.

 The Gambling Commission Needs Clear Direction

It is a surprise that the UK Gambling Commission is still considering this level of restriction, considering the recent statements by their CEO, Andrew Rhodes. Speaking at the CEO Briefing 2022, Rhodes noted that it is not the department’s role “to make a moral judgement” about where British gamblers spend their money and that he supports Briton’s rights to gamble online .

When addressing how these decisions need to be reached, Dugher noted:

“Ministers have rightly always said it will be an evidence-led process; these poll findings are an important reminder of the risks of getting this wrong by introducing arbitrary blanket spending checks on anyone who likes a flutter.”

In his speech at the CEO Briefing, Rhodes went to great pains to point out that the UK gambling market (both online and land-based) had not expanded during the pandemic. The growth in online gambling resulted from housebound brick-and-mortar gamblers having a go online.

He also highlighted the positive actions operators took to strengthen safer gambling and reduce revenues from high-value players—both actions he praised and raised as reasons to have faith in the industry's sustainability.

To move ahead with strict reductions in deposits and other metrics would fly in the face of the player's rights to self-regulate and disregard the operators' actions to create a viable but safe online gambling industry.