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Online Gambling in the UK

The rise of the internet has revolutionised many aspects of our lives over the last decade. Groceries can be ordered; cinema tickets booked, bank transfers made all from the click of a mouse. One industry that has heavily embraced the revolution is gambling. Those wishing to place a bet on the Manchester United - Arsenal match or the 3:15 at Sandown can do so in front of their computer should they so wish. A few hands of blackjack or spins of the roulette wheel can be sought in the virtual format by casino-shy gamblers. The popularity of poker has soared since the game first expanded from the card-rooms to cyberspace in the late nineties and even bingo, which before its recent facelift was the social preserve of the aged, has found an online market.

This rapid growth in online gambling is a cause for serious concern according to gambling behavioural psychologists. Research in 2002 (still relatively early days for internet gambling) revealed that three quarters of those that placed bets online suffered addictive tendencies; this dropped to one-in-five amongst gamblers who refrained from betting online. Then there are the case studies to support the statistics: in 2006 the British media reported that a 23 year old bookkeeper had swindled over a million pounds from his employer to feed his £17’000 per week internet gambling fix. The young man’s salary at the time was £16’000 per annum.

Experts have also warned that online gambling poses a threat to children and it has been pointed out that due to lackadaisical age verification checks, children as young as eleven have been able to open accounts and place bets through their computers. The solitary anonymity of gambling online provides the ideal environment for minors, who would otherwise be turned away from bookies and casinos, to gamble and also for those with serious problems to hide their addiction from friends and family. The internet provides cover and convenience for gambling addicts and makes their escape all that harder.

Although internet gambling is legal in Britain, the American Government has taken indirect steps to prevent it from flourishing in that country. In 2006 they introduced a bill which banned all banks from handling internet gambling transactions. It is unclear whether this law was passed out of a genuine concern for the American citizenry or as an economic protectionist measure (online casinos are banned from operating within America). Nevertheless, it angered many within the country’s online poker community who argued that poker, as a game of skill, should be exempt. It would be unfair to place online poker in the same category as casinos and sports betting.

For the majority of players in Britain, poker is a healthy past-time that was largely inaccessible before its rebirth on the web. However, brink-and mortar-casinos and bookmakers shops are prevalent in towns and cities and have been for many years. Taking them onto the internet is pointless at best and exploitative at worst. For those who gamble sensibly during occasional social visits to the casino or bookies, internet gambling has little to offer. But for the vulnerable and addictive personality, the lure of online betting may be inescapable until the bailiffs take the computer away.