Great Britain’s Gambling Act Review Might Introduce Limits on Pokie Stakes
Earlier in April, the UK government released a white paper on reforming the 2005 Gambling Act. It was a notable milestone for the gambling industry, but what does this mean for pokies? One of the measures the government is looking to explore is setting a blanket limit of 2 GBP to 15 GBP per spin.
Things get even stricter for players between the ages of 18 and 24, as they are considered the most potentially vulnerable demographic. For these people, the government has placed three unique options up for consideration. One of these options is the possibility of setting a 2 GBP to 4 GBP limit per spin, but nothing is set in stone at this time.
There’s room for more due diligence when it comes to people in this demographic, so we might be seeing more than betting limits when things are rolled out. The reason for the focus on this group falls on the results of data collected and analysed over the last 20 years. Per findings, the Public Health England noted an 8.7% prevalence of problem gambling within casino games, bingo, and online slots. To top things off, there’s a 44.2% rate of vulnerable players using those gambling products.
Offshore and Slots Risk Considered
It’s not out of place to wonder why the focus is on online pokies. The simple answer is that the NGTS ( National Gambling Treatment Service), reported a jump in the percentage of pokie players seeking help from 16.5% in 2015 and 2016 to an alarming 38.1% between 2021 and 2022.
The implication of this for the gambling industry is an estimated 16.1 million GBP in gambling yield for a 15 GBP per spin limit if no additional restrictions are applied to players younger than 25. For the 2 GBP limit, there is an expected estimate of 413.5 million GBP. Consequently, this will put a huge cost on operators, with between 5 and 10 million GBP at the botton lines.
This changes the game to a large extent for operators with a UKGC license, and we’re waiting to see if other governments tow similar lanes in the coming months.
