Report claims that online gambling industry has had a negative impact on the UK economy. Minister face calls to impose higher taxes on the multibillion-pound online gambling industry.
The Campaign for Fairer Gambling commissioned the report. National Economic Research Associates (Nera) produced it. The rise in online gambling has been damaging to the UK economy as claims state. It diverts money from other sectors that create significantly more economic activity.
Online gambling revenues in Britain have increased significantly. They rose from £4.2 billion in the financial year 2015-16 to £6.5 billion for 2022 to 2023. These figures are shown by the Gambling Commission.
Meanwhile, recent data show that customers of the biggest operators placed more than 24.5 billion online bets in Q1 of 2023 to 2024. More than 9 million online betting sessions lasted longer than an hour.
Founder of the Campaign for Fairer Gambling, Derek Webb, said that the gambling review by the previous government had failed to properly consider the fiscal, economic and societal impacts of online gambling. Growing the economy will require sufficiently taxing the online gambling sector and placing constraints on the stimulation of online gambling. We should permit the activity but avoid promoting it.
Online gambling is a high-margin, low-cost activity for gambling operators. A few people work specifically in the industry. It says other industries where would-be gamblers may spend their money, which it calls discretionary alternatives, create more value in terms of economic activity, as stated by The Nera report.
The report states that other industries where would-be gamblers might spend their money are much more labor-intensive than gambling. There fore when customers spend money on these discretionary alternatives it creates more value in terms of overall economic activity, jobs created and wages paid out.
