The tax revenue for online gambling more than tripled between the 2015 and 25 fiscal years, according to data from the Gambling Commission.<\/p>\n
However, levels of in-person gambling in Manchester remain high.<\/p>\n
Lauren Campbell, treatment manager at North West gambling support charity Beacon Counselling Trust, said: \u201cGambling is a massive problem across the North West.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe issue is worse in places with high levels of deprivation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are the places where you find more gambling shops.\u201d<\/p>\n
Total tax duties from remote (online) gambling were \u00a3336m in 2015\/16, out of a total tax revenue of \u00a32.7bn for the industry as a whole.<\/p>\n
By 2024\/25, remote gambling revenues increased to around \u00a31.2bn out of a total revenue of \u00a33.6bn.<\/p>\n
This means remote gambling is now the highest single source of gambling tax revenue in the UK.<\/p>\n
As online gambling has risen, the number of bookmakers throughout the country has fallen.<\/p>\n
Between 2019 and 2024, the number of high-street bookmakers fell by about 30%, with 2400 bookies closing their doors, according to the Telegraph<\/a>.<\/p>\n This trend peaked around the pandemic, with almost 1000 UK bookmakers shutting up shop in 2020 alone. The decline of bookies has slowed since this peak, but brick-and-mortar shops are still closing at higher than pre-2019 rates.<\/p>\n As well as being a result of the rise of online gambling, this is in part due to the previous government\u2019s efforts to curb \u2018fixed odds betting terminals\u2019 (FOBTs), which were seen as particularly addictive.<\/p>\n Where once gamblers could use these machines to bet up to \u00a3100 on various games of chance, the maximum bet has now been capped at \u00a32.<\/p>\n Campbell said: \u201cI saw a shift in my service users when this law was put in place.<\/p>\n \u201cSome people carried on gambling on the machines, even though the spend limit frustrated them.<\/p>\n \u201cOthers either stopped gambling or moved online.\u201d<\/p>\n But although in-person gambling is on the decline nationwide, the Greater Manchester region still has high numbers of \u2018land-based\u2019 gambling stores.<\/p>\n There are currently 95 brick-and-mortar gambling premises registered with Manchester City Council alone, excluding family-friendly arcades.<\/p>\n This is the fourth most of any local authority in the UK, behind only Liverpool, Birmingham, and Glasgow.<\/p>\n When taken as a whole, Greater Manchester plays host to 390 of the country\u2019s 8,505 licensed gambling premises, excluding family-friendly arcades.<\/p>\n The average number of gambling premises per local authority is 23.<\/p>\n The high number of gambling premises in Manchester is partly due to its large population, but not solely \u2013 relative deprivation is also a key factor.<\/p>\n Buckinghamshire has a population of approximately 560,000 compared to Manchester\u2019s 569,000 but has only 39 total gambling premises.<\/p>\n According to the Greater Manchester Strategic Needs Assessment<\/a>, people in the most deprived communities are nearly twice as likely gamble than people in the least deprived communities, and are seven times more likely be problem gamblers.<\/p>\n Problem gamblers in Manchester are also three times more likely to need to use a foodbank, with 28.6% of residents who gamble going without eating for a whole day because of a lack of money.<\/p>\n Research from the University of Bristol<\/a> found that 21% of the UK\u2019s gambling premises are located in the most deprived neighbourhoods, with only 2% in the least deprived neighbourhoods.<\/p>\n Danny, from the Manchester needs assessment, stated that one of his issues as a problem gambler in Manchester was the high number of gambling premises in the town centre<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI counted I had to pass 20 gambling shops between getting of the train and going to work.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery shop has a free bet or an offer in the window to entice you back in.\u201d<\/p>\n Several Greater Manchester boroughs consistently rank among the most deprived in the country, according to the 2019 indices of multiple deprivation<\/a>.<\/p>\n The city of Manchester has the highest level of deprivation in Greater Manchester, with 43% of the population among the country\u2019s 10% most deprived.<\/p>\n The city is considered to have \u2018high\u2019 numbers of low level, moderate, and problem gamblers, according to data from GambleAware<\/a>.<\/p>\n Campbell also stated that Manchester\u2019s football culture could be responsible for the large numbers of gambling premises.<\/p>\n \u201cOlder football fans still often go into the shops and put bets on.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a social aspect to it too \u2013 it\u2019s part of their routine.\u201d<\/p>\n Beacon Counselling Trust is a North West based mental health charity. They are one of the leading providers of gambling harms support, education and treatment within the National Gambling Support Network For more information, email:\u00a0[email\u00a0protected]<\/a>\u00a0call 0151 226 0696 or visit\u00a0beaconcounsellingtrust.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n Featured image credit: Daniel Dougherty<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The tax revenue for online gambling more than tripled between the 2015 and 25 fiscal years, according to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[78514,78515,748,33727,78516,393,6732,4884,78517,2465,78518,16,15,2026],"class_list":{"0":"post-192019","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-admiral","9":"tag-betfred","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-casino","12":"tag-deprivation","13":"tag-england","14":"tag-gambling","15":"tag-great-britain","16":"tag-in-person","17":"tag-manchester","18":"tag-northwest","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-william-hill"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114699463900616515","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}