In 2020, the UK government started to think seriously about tightening online gambling laws. The UK gambling market is one of the most lucrative, especially in poker and sports betting because British people adore gambling.
Currently, UK gambling is regulated by the laws of 2005 and 2014.
Currently, the yearly income of the state from gambling is estimated at 14,2 billion pounds.
According to regulatory authorities, over the past years, the gambling culture has started to get out of control. The authorities estimate that around 3% of the UK adult population is addicted to gambling.
Experts of pokerbroz.com have immediately analyzed such a terrible situation for poker players.
Continue reading to get the details.
What new gambling restrictions will be introduced in the UK?
Last year, a parliamentary committee brought out a study on gambling’s influence on the UK population. Therefore, the new gambling law will be drawn upon its basis. The most likely items to be included are the following:
- Limiting advertising;
- Deposit limits;
- VIP programs ban.
Limiting advertising
The attractiveness of gambling in the UK is explained by the complete freedom of advertising. All popular platforms and promo methods are available for gambling companies. These are TV, the Internet, social networks, and powerful sponsorship contracts.
For example, almost half of the Premier League football teams wear uniforms with the logos of poker operators.
Deposits limit
There will be a limit on the deposit amount in poker rooms. Licensed operators will be required to oblige gamblers to provide an income statement if a deposit amount on a gaming account is over a certain sum per week.
VIP programs ban
Online casinos always provide gamblers with individual bonuses for playing regularly.
The Betting and Gaming Council has recently stated that it is necessary to forbid all VIP programs for regular gamblers, as well as to considerably decrease the quantity of bonus money and monthly freerolls.
Why are licensed poker operators outraged?
It is very difficult to get a UK online poker license.
However, the underworld operators, which are not licensed in the country, gladly accept British gamblers.
Thus, those who honestly purchased a license keep on asking the government the same question: when will the state wipe out dishonest operators, because of which honest ones lose profit?
Instead of protecting licensed operators, the country’s authorities continue getting tough on them and, thus, making the work of underworld poker rooms even more profitable.
Gambling companies joined up and ordered an investigation from PricewaterhouseCoopers. The latter made an exclusive report on the entire volume of the UK gambling black market and released the data.
According to it, in 2019, about 260,000 UK residents lost £ 1.5 billion on illegal poker websites. And this number keeps on growing. Therefore, the extra tightening of gambling laws will only degenerate the situation.
Conclusion
Therefore, now we can see that the UK is almost unavoidably waiting for the tightening of gambling laws. So far, one can only speculate about the consequences, but one should not expect the large poker rooms to leave the UK market.
