The Changing Face of Gambling
Only a few years have passed since the gambling laws were relaxed to a degree in the United Kingdom and the result of this has become very apparent. The number of casinos has increased across most areas and initially, there was concern about people developing serious gambling addictions. Gambling in the UK already consisted of many forms including scratch cards, various lotteries and horse and dog racing. The major change was the arrival of Internet gambling and this has changed the face of British gambling forever.
The emergence of online gambling sites has set a trend that is likely to increase year on year for the foreseeable future. You cannot escape from the advertising campaigns that these companies put out and you can guarantee that you will see several advertisements on TV before your evenings relaxation is over. There are three main gambling websites that seem to be filling our TV screens which are bingo, casinos and poker related sites, and these sites often offer a welcome incentive to get you interested.
Many people have voiced concerns regarding online gambling in particular, as it is been seen as an easier way to potentially develop a gambling addiction, as you just put your credit card details in and away you go. The player never sees the money he or she is playing with and things could possibly get out of hand over a relatively short period of time. There have been several studies into gambling within the UK and the findings suggest that the impact has not been as severe as initially thought. Over 30 million of UK adults have gambled in one form or other over the last year and just over five percent of these gambled online. The suggested number of gamblers with a serious problem is put at less than 300,000 which shows that the majority of players are just having a bit of fun and are tending to gamble more responsibly.