Gambling losses in online gaming very skewed to deprived areas – UK study
More than 420,000 British gamblers lose at least £2,000 a year, according to a major report that warns losses on the most addictive products are “strongly skewed” towards deprived areas.
The report lays bare the punishing losses incurred by the heaviest gamblers and raises “concern” at the low level of intervention by gambling companies to prevent them suffering harm.
Its findings sparked renewed calls for a government review of gambling regulations, due within days, to include tough affordability checks and stake limits on online slot machines, which allow punters to bet large sums on a single “spin”.
Researchers from the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) and the University of Liverpool raised particular concerns about online gaming, a £4bn-a-year category that includes online bingo and casino, but which is dominated by virtual slots.
An estimated 129,000 gaming customers lost at least £2,000 in a year, more than the average home gas and electricity tariff, according to analysis of 140,000 accounts with seven gambling firms.
In practice the number of people suffering such losses is likely to be much higher, because the data covers just 37.5% of the British online gaming market.
Virtual slots were singled out for particular concern, with 50,000 individuals found to have played for the equivalent of eight full days in a year, losing £5,000 on average. While gambling is male-dominated overall, this group was more likely to include women.
Firms derive 40% of their slots revenue from just 1% of players, who lost an average of £10,491 each on the games, which carry disproportionately high rates of addiction.
Losses across all types of online gaming were “strongly skewed” towards the most deprived areas, the report found,
Read more on theguardian.com
