Over the past few years casinos and online wagering in the uk have been be subject to many newspaper stories, leading many to believe an increased number of people were wagering, with the possibility of a large proportion succumbing to wagering addiction. However, the recently released British Wagering Prevalence rtp live Survey 2007 has proven otherwise, surprising those who held preconceptions about the numbers of gamblers in the uk, as well as wagering trends.
Many hypothesized that the survey would indicate a huge increase in the amount of wagering taking place, with special emphasis on those who thought we would gamble their money online. However, the survey revealed that actual wagering figures for the year have stayed almost at the same levels as they were back in 1999, exhibiting that the anticipated increase in wagering numbers hasn’t materialised and suggests that there are much less many problem gamblers as previously thought.
The number of ways people can gamble has certainly increased in recent years, with the huge variety of scratch cards available, as well as new casino openings and the advent of online wagering. In fact, the number of online wagering websites has increased greatly couple of years, along with the variety of games available to play and the ease at which users can gamble their funds on these websites. It was this area increase in particular that led many to speculate on the potential wagering addiction problem in the uk.
The report shows that around 32 million adults have participated in some form of wagering activity within the past year, which includes the National Lottery and the instantly fulfilling and readily-available ‘instant win’ scratch cards. Of these people only 6 percent placed wagers online, while only 3 percent gambled online by playing poker or casino [http://www.pfgames.com/casino.aspx] games or placed gamble with a bookmaker using the internet.
These facts are probably surprising considering the amount of press that online wagering has received in the past, especially since the survey also revealed that the number of “problem gamblers” is a just 400, 000 people – accounting for less than one percent of the total number of gamblers.
Of course there was a lot of feedback from politicians and non secular groups as well as the general feeling of the public. Although the study reveals many info about the wagering situation in the uk, there is always more room for debate to consider the effects wagering has on society and on those who develop problems. As the debate stands in the aftermath of the report however, it looks that the laws regulating wagering will remain untouched although there will probably be further inquiries into the regulation of online wagering.