Retail betting shops in the UK continue to close due to a reduction in maximum bets from £100 to £2. According to SBC News, the UK Gambling Commission reported a 1.5 percent decrease in the number of shops since March 2018. The total now stands at 8,423, while licensed arcades and bingo halls have also dropped by 5.3 percent and 1.1 percent respectively.
William Hill was the first bookmaker to start selling off its shops, and announced during its full-year 2018 results that it will shut down a total of 900 stores across the UK. Meanwhile, Ladbrokes recently stated that it expects to pull the plug on 1,000 betting shops this year.
Ben Haden, UKGC program director said, “Despite the marginal decline across the wider gambling industry, the online gambling sector continues to grow. Our role as regulator will continue to see us working to raise standards right across the industry.
“Following our comprehensive review of the online gambling sector in 2018, this year we have implemented new rules to strengthen age and ID verification checks and we’ve also been working with partners in financial institutions to develop the role they can play to protect vulnerable consumers,” he added.
“Last month we published the new National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms which has a renewed focus on plans to widen research, take a preventative approach to gambling harms, assess treatment provision, embed a culture of evaluation, and encourage industry to collaborate to make gambling safer.’’
