It’s really a fashionable and belief that is long-held the UK’s high road betting shops victimize 888 casino games the bad. Bookmakers spring up in deprived areas, states received wisdom, in order to exploit those currently enduring economic difficulty.

Leading bookmaking organizations such as William Hill, Ladbrokes and Paddy Power have always strongly denied this, and a report that is new to keep them away, suggesting that the ‘poverty exploitation’ theory is a myth.

The independent report, which was carried out by data analyst the Local Data Company at the behest of the Association of British Bookmakers (ABB), concludes the united kingdom’s poorest areas actually have a much lower concentration of betting stores than more affluent areas. The study found that areas identified as having high quantities of deprivation host 17 percent for the country’s high street bookmakers, while 35 percent of shops are located those areas defined as the wealthiest. Meanwhile, 62 percent of all UK shops that are betting found in areas with lower-than-average poverty levels.

No Economic Incentive

The report also unearthed that new shops, as opposed to appearing in bad areas, have actually been focused within the least-deprived areas, because, simply put, prosperous parts of the country are far more lucrative because customers have actually more cash. There is no incentive that is economic consequently, to target the vulnerable.

‘There is nothing into the data to suggest that bookmakers deliberately target poor and people that are vulnerable’ stated Local Data business director Matthew Hopkinson. ‘Our analysis shows brand new shop openings are primarily in towns with low and normal deprivation scores not in the poorest areas.’

ABB chief executive Dirk Vennix said he hoped the findings would ‘dispel some damaging myths propagated by those wanting to demonize and toxify our industry.’

‘We are a responsible and regulated industry selling a main-stream leisure product enjoyed by over 8 million people per year,’ stated Vennix. ‘We choose where you can locate our shops in exactly the same way as any other retailer would using commercial facets such as consumer need, footfall, and presence that is competitive. It makes no feeling whatsoever for us to target poor communities or vulnerable people.’

Called ‘Blight’ By Some

Bookmakers have been under fire recently for perceived aggressive expansion throughout the UK and for the prevalence of fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) in their shops. At the start of last year, federal government retail guru Mary Portas called for measures to be taken against the expansion of betting shops inside her review of high street shops, including that these were ‘blighting our high roads’.

However, the report found that, on the contrary, gambling stores had been expanding at a slower rate than a great many other businesses. 2013 saw an increase of 1.3 per cent in gambling stores, whilst the amount of pawnbrokers, coffee shops and convenience stores grew at a rate of 3 percent over that same period.

The publication of the report comes just ahead of a government study into FOBTs, due out this which seeks to review policy on the machines week. Parliament is trying to add to the rule of conduct drawn up by the ABB final thirty days by increasing player protection methods and establishing spending and time limits for sessions. FOBTs allow clients to wager relatively large amounts sometimes as much as £100 (US$168) per spin on virtual casino games. Detractors argue they’ve promoted a resurgence in problem gambling since their introduction to Britain’s bookmaker shops in 2005.