The coronavirus lockdown has meant people have been unable to enjoy the things they are used to — unless they are available online. Many people recognised the long and difficult days spent indoors would be almost unbearable if not for the internet and its’ many services. One of those services, increasingly, is online gambling. 

It turns out that gambling-mad Brits have turned to the internet in their droves during the UK lockdown, in search of the best live casinos that allowed them to place bets and play their favourite casino games. 

That’s according to data from Google Trends, which shows soaring levels of searches for online casinos since the UK introduced its lockdown measure to combat coronavirus towards the end of March. It came as more traditional forms of betting, such as horse racing and football, were temporarily scrapped as the entire country shut down and sporting events came to a halt. 

 

Rising Remote UK Gambling Sector

 

Total gambling activities in Britain are collectively worth an enormous £14.3 billion a year, according to the latest statistics from the Gambling Commission, covering October 2018 to September 2019 and published last month. These statistics include 9,745 gambling and betting premises in the four-nations encompassing England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. That’s an almost 10% drop in the number of physical locations from the previous reporting period, a year earlier. 

This drop may be a concrete sign that more gambling is moving online. The Commission’s new data show that remote gambling is now worth £3.2 billion annually, an increase of almost 4% on a year earlier. The next set of data is likely to see that number rise significantly, due to the high levels of searches for online casinos during the prolonged lockdown, as gamblers sought to play their favourite casino games while also entertaining themselves at home and beating the boredom. 

 

What’s the Appeal of Online Casinos?

 

Online casinos have only really become popular in the last few years, as internet technologies developed and allowed for more realistic, and live, playing at operators’ sites. These days, you can play whatever you like at the best live casinos online and from wherever you happen to be — at home, at work, on holiday or anywhere else. Plus, such sites are now better configured and optimised for the range of computing devices in use, including desktop, laptop, tablets and also mobile phones. 

This increased accessibility makes it much more convenient to play at online casinos, instead of having to head out to a town or city and perhaps also stay at a hotel for a few days. So time and expenses are slashed, and many of the best live casinos offer attractive sign-up bonuses as well as regular promotions that players can take advantage of to increase their funds. Security is also an important factor. Not only are reputable online casino sites protected against hacking and other issues but — in the UK at least — they’re obliged by law to treat their customers fairly, including not holding on to their winnings and paying out promptly. 

To ensure compliance among operators, the Commission has been clamping down hard on those who stray beyond the rules, and has handed out millions of pounds in fines in recent times, and struck some online casino firms off — revoking their licences, so they’re no longer able to stay in business. 

It would seem that online casino gambling in the UK is certainly a safe bet.

 

 

Tags: online gambling uk, uk gambling lockdown

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 11th, 2020 at 6:36 pm and is filed under Online Gambling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.