More Gamblers After Abolition Of 24 Hour Rule
Published: Sunday, November 13, 2005 Online-Casinos.com
MORE GAMBLERS AFTER ABOLITION OF 24 HOUR RULE
Substantial increase in land casino business as UK's 24 hour registration requirement
is lifted
The Times was reporting this week that the abolition of the UK's 24 hour registration
period for new land casino gamblers has apparently resulted in a surge of new
business at the countrys 138 terresrtial casinos.
Since the holding period was lifted just over a month ago, British land casinos
have reported that 100 000 new players equating to a overall 8 percent increase
have entered their premises...more than three times that expected, and they anticipate
that this number will have swollen to a quarter of a million visitors within the
next two months.
17 new sites are scheduled to open by 2009 and applications for a further 40 new
casinos are likely to be approved. The Times reports that the largest of the casinos
opening in 2009 will be at least ten times the size of most existing premises
and contain GBP 1 000 000 prize slot machines, attracting at least three million
visitors a year.
The gambling industry will get a further boost in 2007 when casinos will be allowed
to advertise for the first time.
The newspaper reports that the number of land gamblers with a problem was increasing
before the rule change, with some 300 000 persons requesting assistance, and quotes
a Salvation Army spokesman as saying: "This is a larger increase than we
had feared, all in just five weeks. The cooling-off period helped to ensure that
people made a conscious decision before gambling in a casino on highly addictive
games."
Until this year, 2.7 percent of the population, or about 1.8 million people were
involved in land casino gambling. The amount spent in casinos rose about 30 percent
to GBP 4 billion between 1999 and 2004.
A spokesman for the government said: “The Gambling Act is designed to minimise
the harm that gambling can cause. The 24-hour rule for casinos and bingo clubs
was removed because it serves no practical purpose in a world where you can walk
off the street into a bookmakers or log on to a web casino at the touch of a button.”
