Author: Daniel Williams

Yesterday, the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) published more data regarding the impact of the coronavirus lockdown on local customers’ gambling behaviour. The data unveiled covers the two months of full shutdown in April and May 2020 and was gathered by the Covid-19 tracker of YouGov and the biggest online gambling companies that operate in the country. It also builds on information that the UKGC published on May 12th and June 12th, with the gambling regulatory body unveiling updated guidance to gambling companies in May. As revealed by the watchdog, the…

The English Football League (EFL) has called for the UK Government not to proceed with plans to ban gambling sponsorship agreements amid financial concerns. According to the EFL, such a move could force more clubs to go out of business. Yesterday, a select committee of gambling at the House of Lords published a major report, according to which Premier League football clubs should not be permitted to display betting companies’ logos on their shirts from the next season. Furthermore, the committee believes that the teams below the top flight should…

The Gambling Committee at the House of Lords has called for the UK Government to regulate loot boxes as a form of gambling under the existing gambling legislation and has warned that the change should not be postponed any more. According to the Lords, loot boxes offered in many video games should be classified as “games of chance”. In their report, they insist that if a certain product resembled gambling, it should be regulated as such. If such a classification is made, then loot boxes would be considered a form…

Blackpool’s council licensing panel rejected an application filed by a gambling company that has been willing to get a bingo premises licence for some slot machines on Abingdon Street. Unfortunately for Cashino Gaming, it would not be able to place its Merkur Slots at the abovementioned site as local authorities feared that the bingo premises and the offered gambling option would have a negative impact on vulnerable individuals. The rejection follows another blow that Cashino Gaming has suffered in Blackpool after the planning committee of the city council also refused…

Anti-gambling campaigners claim that the reopening of controversial poker machines after over three months of lockdown was a mistake, saying that the authorities missed an opportunity to tackle gambling addiction in South Australia. As of yesterday, phase three of the relaxation of the Government’s restrictions made it possible for pubs to reopen their gaming rooms. Apart from that, the maximum limit on the number of customers inside hotels and bars was also removed, provided patrons did not exceed one person per 2 square metres. The relaxed lockdown measures fuelled some…

A parliamentary committee has warned that the British Government and the country’s gambling regulatory – the UK Gambling Commission – do not understand the harmful effects of gambling and how to minimise them. According to a report issued by the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Commons, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the UKGC have failed to provide proper help to an estimated number of 395,000 gambling addicts in the country and a further 1.8 million individuals who are considered at risk of becoming…

The first application aimed at helping people who want to tackle their gambling habits has been designed in New Zealand. Now, individuals, who feel gambling is no longer fun and has become a problem, are being asked to try the application for 12 weeks as part of a nationwide study aimed at checking whether the application would help them reduce or fully quit their gambling. It was the National Institute for Health Innovation at Auckland University that developed the mobile application, called Manaaki. Deakin University in Australia and the local…

Some Northern Ireland politicians have addressed their colleagues based in Westminster to seek some guidance at a time when they are rolling out an inquiry that is aimed at establishing a new gambling legislation in the UK province. The Stormont-based APG on Reducing Harm Related to Gambling that has recently been established, revealed that it is to take guidance from Westminster’s Gambling-Related Harm APPG as its inquiry is in progress, with evidence sessions set to start in September 2020. According to the Northern Ireland politicians’ group, the proposals that their…

The British gambling standards body, the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC), has denounced the UK government’s decision to further put off the reopening of landbased casinos while allowing other entertainment and hospitality businesses to resume their operations as planned, on July 4. In an official Tuesday statement, Great Britain’s Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, announced he had decided to lift the coronavirus restrictions on a broad variety of businesses, including hair salons, dining establishments, pubs, hotels, and museums. However, gambling venues, which shut their doors to customers on March 23, did…

A recent survey carried out by BonusFinder determined that 94% of the gamblers in Great Britain are familiar with the tools for responsible gaming, offered to them by licensed betting operators during the coronavirus lockdown in the past four months. The survey in question involved 500 casino and bingo bettors from the United Kingdom. It was established that roughly 31% of British players from different age groups admitted to having placed more wagers than they normally would between the months of March and June 2020. The survey also showed that…