As the Coronavirus crisis is on the rise, people have more and more time to do things they like at home. While many people love binge-watching series and movies, some of them enjoy gambling. And not healthy gambling, but the excessive one.
This practice can, as the Parliament estimated, be very dangerous to gambling lovers. Numerous online UK casinos flooded the internet with ads, prompting even the first-time gamblers to join and start gambling.
While many casinos agreed to stop doing this, not all of them are compliant. This made the UK Parliament discuss the potential decision to ban online gambling ads altogether.
How will This Decision Impact the Gambling Industry?
The real question is how will the UK Parliament impact the whole UK gambling industry. In the past few decades, numerous laws and legislations were changed and tweaked, to reduce the effect that excessive gambling had on the people of this country.
In 2021, the Parliament members still think it’s time to introduce more drastic changes, especially due to the COVID-19 outbreak. However, this industry is one of the largest in the country and is estimated to be over 11 million GBP. Logically, the country benefits from it quite a lot, thanks to imposed taxes.
Nevertheless, the Parliament plans to update the almighty 2005 Gamgling Act, which should bring some significant changes to the table. The first change we’re going to see is the one we mentioned – ban on the gambling ads.
Gambling ads are all around us, so the decision will affect online ads, radio ads, and even TV ads. This way, the people of the UK will be less aware of the casinos/bookmakers, which should have a positive impact on reducing gambling addiction.
Should this happen, it will be a strong punch to the face of many gambling/betting operators. They’ll have to find another way of promoting their business, rather than introducing flashy ads all over the internet.
Interestingly, the Parliament wants to impose strict limits on online slots. They want the maximum stake to be £2 so that the users can’t throw away their money if they lose excessively. This law will potentially ban VIP and loyalty programs, which is a major hit on pretty much every bookie online.
In their words, loyalty programs have a psychological impact on the players, as they’re trying to keep up and stay in the VIP member zone. Once again, this will make the task of keeping the existing players much harder for online casinos, but also attract new players, as ads will be prohibited.
Will We See the Downfall of Online Casinos in the UK?
Probably not. But, with forbidden ads, the casinos will have a much harder time attracting new players, especially new casinos in the UK. In the long run, the gambling industry will probably shrink in value, which is inevitable if things like this happen.
One thing is sure – gambling won’t be as popular in the UK as it used to be. This effect won’t be achieved now, but in five, ten, or fifteen years, who knows what we can expect.
