"Online Gambling Experiencing a Boom"

OBC’s annual Gambler Track study reports that in spite of the apparent fact that gambling has been on the decline nationally in recent years, nearly 60 percent of the United Kingdom’s residents still report that they gamble in one form or another. Sixty percent of the UK population reports participating in gambling, while online gambling is seeing a rise in the number of participants. During the last year alone, according to the study, online gambling has seen a 46 percent increase in the number of participants. At the traditional casinos, the brick and mortar land based kind, gambling in the United Kingdom is reported as being on the decline. In addition to this, even though online gambling is still forms a relatively small sector of the industry, it is considered as being highly competitive. The pending deregulation of the industry will most likely encourage even greater growth in this industry. At the same time and in contrast, the more traditional practices of betting by telephone, betting in shops and casinos, and betting on-course has continued to see a decline in 2004. This follows a trend that was first noted a few years ago. The fact is that since 1996, the total numbers of adult gamblers has decreased from 37.5 million to 28 million.

Of those that do gamble in the United Kingdom the majority of adult gamblers are those that play the national lottery. According to the OBC study, that represents about 95 percent of gamblers, or more than half of all adults in the United Kingdom. This recent study also indicates that the decline in the number of gamblers is starting to level off. In fact, interest in gambling and the lottery is starting to pick up again.

OBC interviewed about 4000 adults as a part of this study. Respondents were asked questions about all forms of gambling. This included bingo, online gambling, football pools, and the national lottery. The data which were collected by OBC in November of last year is being used by Camelot, Rank Leisure, Gala Group, as well as the National Lottery Commission.