The Gambling Kingz Editorial

According to a report published last month by Deloitte, the UK betting industry is an extremely large contributor to the nation's economy, with figures showing that in 2011 alone, a whopping £2.3 billion in betting revenues was betting's share of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

This is not surprising considering the UK has such a long and rich gambling heritage, with the majority of UK adults partaking in some form of gambling - whether it be playing the lottery, buying a scratch card, placing a bet, gambling in a land casino or gambling remotely over the internet or via mobile.

New UK Betting Report From Deloitte

Commissioned by the Association of British Bookmakers (ABB), the Deloitte report was intended as an update for a report published in 2010 called The Full Picture, which also delved into betting's contribution to the UK economy.

These betting reports are very important because they provide a useful insight into the relationship between bettors, operators and the government.

From the point of view of betting fans in the UK, they could not ask to live in a more "betting friendly" country, with a betting shop or three on just about every high street in the land. This means people seeking a physical betting outlet don't have very far to go to find what they are looking for, with competition very healthy.

That said, gambling opponents in the UK are quick to point out that because of the lackluster economic climate, as more and more high street shops are forced to close their doors, it seems as though they are soon replaced by yet more betting shops. It is their contention that there are too many betting shops in Britain already.

Betting Shops Benefit All Concerned

Of course, betting fans, shop operators and the government beg to differ. Fans, because they have a greater choice of outlets; shop operators because they can maximise their accessibility in an area; and the government because greater betting revenues means more taxes, which means more money to help top up depleted state coffers.

But what the Deloitte report did reveal is that despite the huge contribution betting makes to the UK's GDP, it has dropped off since 2008, although the reason for this is not hard to identify - the growth of online gambling.

While many UK gamblers still prefer to conduct their respective forms of gambling in person at a land outlets - whether it be to buy a scratch card or a lotto ticket, lay a sports bet or play roulette or a slot game at a land casino - many others have moved over to online gambling facilities, and more recently mobile gambling facilities, due to their around-the-clock convenience, privacy and ease-of-use.

£400m Generated by Remote Betting in 2011

As proof of this, according to the Deloitte report £400 million of betting's £2.3 billion GDP contribution in 2011 hailed from remote betting.

This figure would be even higher if not for the fact that the UK's high online gambling taxes have forced many of the country's top betting operators to relocate to more tax-friendly jurisdictions. Not only that, but as firms moved offshore, so levels of employment in the industry enevitably dropped - by as much as 25%.

And despite calls from operators to the government to reduce online gambling taxes to make it more feasible for them financially to be based in the country, the government has other ideas. Instead of caving in to these pleas to reduced online gambling taxes, the government is planning to introduce a "point of consumption" tax.

This means that no matter where in the world operators are based or what rate of tax their respective online gaming jurisdiction requires them to pay, they will be taxed by HMRC on all of their players that live in the UK.

But even though most affected operators will decry this move if it happens, they will no doubt continue to service the UK online gambling market because it is so undeniably lucrative, and thus attractive.