According to the recently published data, those playing in online casinos regularly tend to switch from wagers on the sport to the riskier online casino and slot games due to lockdown restrictions imposed everywhere to stop the COVID-19 from spreading and damaging peoples’ lives and countries’ economies.
Sporting Event Cancellations
It is a given fact that the entertainment industry is struggling a lot due to event cancellation. Namely, the Premier League and Grand National were canceled as well, which significantly cut income from sports betting, which was, in turn, accounting for about 16% of the revenues.
And it is now becoming more evident that gamblers start to massively migrate towards alternative products and ways to entertain themselves while they are in quarantine.
SoftSwiss
The recent report states:
There is currently evidence of increased customer activity in the group’s casino and poker products that might, in part, compensate for the sports betting disruption for a period of time.
Therefore, the majority of online gambling companies were required to limit daily bets to a maximum of 50 GBP earlier this week. This requirement stems from the concern of authorities that vulnerable people and addicts will become even more vulnerable during the period of lockdown which does not seem to have any particular deadline.
What About Gambling Addiction?
According to the recent research conducted by the Gambling Commission, approximately 1.2% of people who take part in gambling have a serious problem and addiction. The rate is relatively low because it also takes into account those playing the national lottery, where problem gambling rates are quite low on average.
This rate is a bit higher for online sports betting with a bookmaker, about 2.5%. But when it comes to casino and bingo, the rate is already 9.2%. This is a rate of those who are spending money on those products/services and are classified as having a problem/addiction.
This is the main reason why the MPs are requesting massively to impose a daily betting cap to set a limit of spending for those who are the most vulnerable.
The board recognizes that, with people spending more time at home and with potentially increased stress from economic uncertainty, 888’s vigilance on safe gambling and preventing gambling-related harm is even more important than ever. The group continues to offer its customers support and is proactively communicating with its customers to make them aware of safe gambling tools to limit and control their play.
