It’s really a fashionable and belief that is long-held the UK’s high road betting shops prey on the poor. Bookmakers spring up in deprived areas, states received knowledge, in an effort to exploit those currently struggling with economic difficulty.

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

The separate report, that has been carried out by data analyst the Local Data Company at the behest of the Association of British Bookmakers (ABB), concludes the UK’s poorest areas already have a much lower concentration of gambling shops than more affluent areas. The research found that areas identified as having high degrees of deprivation host 17 percent associated with the country’s high street bookmakers, while 35 percent of shops are located those areas recognized as the wealthiest. Meanwhile, 62 percent of all UK betting shops are found in areas with lower-than-average poverty levels.

No Economic Incentive

The report also found that new shops, in place of appearing in poor areas, have really been focused into the least-deprived areas, because, simply put, prosperous places are far more profitable because customers have actually more income. There was no economic motivation, therefore, to target the vulnerable.

‘There is nothing within the data to suggest that bookmakers deliberately target poor and people that are vulnerable’ stated Local Data Company director Matthew Hopkinson. ‘Our analysis shows new store 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 myths that are damaging by those trying to demonize and toxify our industry.’

‘We are a responsible and regulated industry selling a main-stream leisure product enjoyed by over 8 million individuals per 12 months,’ stated Vennix. ‘We choose where you should locate our stores in the same way as any other retailer would using commercial factors such as consumer need, footfall, and presence that is competitive. It makes no sense whatsoever for us to target poor communities or vulnerable people.’

Called ‘Blight’ By Some

Bookmakers have been under fire recently for identified aggressive expansion throughout the united kingdom and for the prevalence of fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) in their shops. At the beginning of last year, federal government retail guru Mary Portas called for measures become taken against the expansion of gambling stores inside her review of high-street stores, including that they certainly were ‘blighting our high casinopokies777.com roads’.

However, the report unearthed that, on the other hand, wagering shops had been expanding at a slower price than a great many other businesses. 2013 saw an increase of 1.3 per cent in gambling shops, as the wide range of pawnbrokers, coffee shops and convenience stores grew at a rate of 3 % over that same period.

The publication of the report comes just in front of a government study into FOBTs, due out this week, which seeks to review policy regarding the machines. Parliament is seeking to add to the code of conduct drawn up by the ABB final month by increasing player protection methods and developing spending and time limits for sessions. FOBTs allow customers to wager amounts that are relatively large as much as £100 (US$168) per spin on digital casino games. Detractors argue they’ve promoted a resurgence in problem gambling since their introduction to Britain’s bookmaker stores in 2005.