Under age gambling in the UK: substantial operator failure

Under age gambling in betting shops

The Gambling Commission (the Commission) undertakes a rolling programme of nationwide test purchase visits to determine that adequate and effective controls are in place to prevent under age gambling. The Commission benefitted on this occasion from working with a number of local council licensing authorities on the most recent series of visits to betting shops.

While the results show that there is still plenty of work to be done, the five major betting operators in Great Britain, accounting for around 80% of betting shops, have made considerable progress. Following disturbing results in May this year when almost all shops failed a similar exercise, these results show that in 65% of the 160shops visited, a person under 18 years of age was prevented from placing a bet at the counter.

This exercise also covered initial visits to a small sample of those medium and smaller betting operators in England and Wales that make up 20% of the total number of betting shops. The results were poor with only 35% of betting shops visited preventing someone under age from betting at the counter.

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