The Danger of Online Gambling in Pandemic Lockdown

The UK is in a state of lockdown, and has been, off and on, for what is approaching a year now. Staying at home is now a legal obligation, and the police have adopted a fairly spirited approach in their interpretation of this new law. So we really are confined to our homes with a few exceptions. The inevitable consequence of this is that we are all likely spending more time online.

I was compelled to write this article for some fairly obvious reasons, a particular trigger being the plethora of ads from the larger gambling establishments. For example, I am 'harassed' on YouTube every few minutes by gambling ads. I get verbal onslaughts from Paddy Power with a frenzied voice telling me about their ‘Acca Kracker’ game, whatever that is. I am not exaggerating when I say that this happens enough for it to be so irritating that I find myself having to mute the audio to maintain any concentration.

Gambling is, for some people, an addiction that can ruin their lives and the lives of those people closest to them. For many others, it is a pastime that does not have a negative impact their lives. And this got me further thinking about the responsibility that gambling sites and establishments should be held to in these troubling and very stressful times, and whether these same gambling establishments are acknowledging that responsibility, or simply 'cashing in' on their captive audience. Our lifestyles have changed so dramatically in the past 12 months that the normal conditions that were the backdrop to our lives and pastimes in previous years are no longer applicable.

To be clear, I have no objection to gambling at all. I have never visited a gambling site, and have no desire to, but I am not taking any moral high ground here. Many people enjoy a flutter without it being a problem. But there is little or no normality in the way we exist from day to day presently, and this is forcing people to spend more time trying to find any mental escape from the increasing stress that is inevitable under these conditions. That escape, for some, may be found in gambling.

It is becoming apparent from much of the data being gathered by the gambling commission that more people are turning to gambling as an escape. For some, this could be a precarious and dangerous path to take. Something as potentially addictive as gambling should be consumed and enjoyed as a leisure activity, not a dependency. If gambling becomes a sedative for something as serious as, say, redundancy, or any other consequence of the pandemic, then clearly the risk of it becoming an addiction later on increases. And there are many people suffering from a multitude of pandemic related consequences. Loss of income; isolation; virus related impact to family members.

I mentioned Paddy Power in my example above but am not singling them out. In fact, of all the main gambling establishments, they are probably the most convincing when it comes to recognising the danger of addiction among their customers. They, like the other big names in gambling, just need to make this very clear when they are advertising their online services, especially at a time when many people are at their most vulnerable. I was very impressed to see an advertisement from Paddy Power only yesterday, which was entirely focused on the danger of addiction, and the message was given by the leaders at Paddy Power. I have seen Ladbrokes do similar. This is an important and positive sign.

So let’s take a closer look at the numbers from three of the main online gambling sites, and from the government.

William Hill, Ladbrokes and Paddy Power are three of the top names in gambling. William Hill, founded in 1934, has a chequered past, having been fined £2.6M in 2018 for ‘systematic failures regarding anti-money laundering’, and a further £5M in fines for ‘accepting large deposits of cash linked to criminal activity’ between 2014 and 2016. They made £1.2M in financial gains from the latter indiscretion. Their revenue for the past 12 months exceeds £1.3B.

Ladborkes Coral Group, now owned and operated by Entain plc (formerly GVC Holdings) is well known for Gala Bingo and Foxy Bingo (we’ve all seen the ads I’m sure), among other familiar gaming titles and connections. It has a more colourful history, getting its name from Ladbroke Hall in Warwickshire where horses were trained, and adopting the Ladbrokes name in 1902 when the operation moved to London. It was very much connected to aristocracy and the upper classes back then. The Gambling Commission announced in July 2019 that Ladbrokes would pay £3.9M for past failings in ‘anti-money laundering and social responsibility’. Entain plc’s revenues for the past twelve months are £3.4B.

Paddy Power is owned and operated by Flutter Entertainment plc. Founded in Dublin in 1988, they are the more interesting and more imaginative of these three gambling businesses. They have courted controversy on many occasions, choosing to break away from conformity, introducing betting on some of the more unusual outcomes (President Obama finishing his term for example, in 2008). This in turn gives Paddy Power increased publicity and draws attention to their business, not always favourable, but attention all the same. Although some of the Paddy Power stunts may appear inappropriate, they do in fact address some very serious causes, such as deforestation, global warming and animal welfare. Revenues for 2019 were £2.1B.

So when we scrutinise the 2020 data relating to gambling, the numbers are quite predictable, considering the pandemic restrictions in place for most of the period. They are also worrying. Between March and October 2020, the online gambling market grew 29% by gross gambling yield. That is to say, in simple terms, the amount of money wagered by online customer, minus the prize money paid out by the gambling establishments, increased by 29% month on month. In addition to GGY, the number of active online accounts grew 7% in the same period.

But gambling is a complex business, and comprises many different online activities. These include slots, betting on real events and virtual events, and poker to name only a few. Not surprisingly, betting on real events dropped for some of the period, as there were no events to bet on. But if we compare the GGY for, say, online poker, the difference is huge.

Taking data from all of the biggest gambling operators (accounting for 80% of online gambling), in March 2019 the gross yield from poker was £8M. In April 2020, the gross yield from Poker was £20M. That is a significant increase that is unlikely to be attributed to normal growth. The number of Poker bets placed in March 2019 was 92 million. In April 2020 it was a staggering 226 million.

Drawing attention to this data is not intended to demonise gambling or the gambling business in any way. It does however draw closer attention to the need for measures that will prevent people drifting unknowingly towards addiction. It doesn’t seem that enough is being done to address this today, and especially not during these exceptional times. The Gambling Commission does issue guidelines that the online operators must follow. It would be interesting to see the results from the gambling establishments, for us to measure how effectively they are in recognising worrying trends and behaviour. Gambling is big business.

The income from gambling in the UK between 2018 and 2019 was £10.5bn, and this excludes the Lottery, so there is a huge amount of money to be made. In contrast, redundancies reached 13.3 per 1000 employees between August and October 2020. This exceeds anything from the last 25 years, including the fallout from the banking crisis in 2008. So there are vulnerable people among us, and some of these people are those trapped by online gambling. www.gamcare.org.uk www.samaritans.org www.maytree.org.uk www.papyrus-uk.org www.thecalmzone.net