The UK Gambling Commission has published its fourth and last report of its ongoing series that is looking into the issue of illegal online gambling.
This series of reports,...
UKGC reports 1.4 million UK adults affected by gambling addiction
According to UK Gambling Commission report, 1.4 million adults are gambling addicts, which has fueled new debate as the government is said to be considering raising taxes on the betting industry.
More than 2.5% of Britain’s adult population (around 1.4 million adults) suffer from gambling-related issues, statistics released by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) have shown. The report has emerged just days after Chancellor Rachel Reeves said that gambling companies may be subject to higher taxes in the coming years. The statistic is over twice earlier estimates.
Nearly half (48%) of respondents reported that in the past month they had gambled, stated the UKGC’s new survey; if sales of lottery tickets were excluded from the statistics, the figure fell to 28%. The agency published the new measure after it had been reviewed by independent specialists, and it became its official measuring standard. The percentage was much lower in earlier surveys, at about 0.4%.
The new estimate has been challenged by gambling industry group the Betting & Gaming Council (BGC), which claims the disparity is down to “different methodologies.” More than 22 million British adults gamble monthly, and as this report from the Gambling Commission shows, the majority do so in a safe manner, a BGC spokeswoman asserted. Additionally, the organization noted that its members had donated GBP 170 million ($211 million) to compulsive gambling treatment and research since 2020.
The report comes after mounting political pressure on the industry to “pay more.” Former PM Gordon Brown’s proposal that the gambling duty could be increased by up to GBP 3 billion ($3.7 billion) to fund social programs could feasibly form part of the forthcoming budget in the autumn.
The UK Gambling Commission has suspended the license of VGC Leeds Limited, the company running the Victoria Gate Casino in Leeds city center, stopping all of the company's...
