Implications of Gambling Industry on UK Business Environment Essay

Gambling opportunities have sharply increased all over the UK in a short period of a couple of years. It has been transforming into a socially acceptable means of entertainment due to the increasing leniency in laws regarding gambling. Gambling has been made available in all areas of the city and special facilities have opened for this purpose. Betting offices, clubs, and casinos are just a few examples of such places. â€Å"Gambling is playing games involving chance or placing bets in the hope or expectation of winning money. Gambling takes many forms, from buying lottery tickets in a raffle to playing the football pools or betting on the Grand National to table gaming in casinos. † (Basic facts about the British Gambling Industry, pg. 2) Developments in science and technology have open new gates for gamblers on a global scale. Nowadays, gamblers can take advantage of online gambling facilities to indulge themselves in these activities without leaving their houses just by using their credit cards. The government has further opened opportunities to gamble on telephones if you have activated an account with a bookmaker. According to a report prepared by KPMG, the total amount betted on gambling activities in Britain in the year 1998 reached 42,121 million pounds. The amount spent in casinos was the topmost which calculated up to 18,547 million pounds. A Brief History of Gambling in Britain â€Å"The high point of gambling in Britain is considered to be a period of aristocratic excess in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Upper-class gaming was characterized by â€Å"deep play† (defined by the philosopher Jeremy Bentham as gambling for stakes so high that it becomes irrational) and crazy, eccentric wagers, such as the one apparently struck by the northern baron who bet he could make it to Lapland and back within an allotted time, accompanied by two reindeer and two native females. He won his bet. † (Atherton, pg. 28+) The Gaming Act of 1845 declared the games of chance as illegitimate. For a long period of time until 1960, gambling carried on inside the UK as an illegal business. It was in 1960 that the government took a major step in the legalization of this industry. Hence, the betting and gaming Act of 1960 was introduced for this legalization process. The Betting and Gaming Act of 1960 altered the previous laws and paved the way for the development of gambling outlets especially casinos all over the UK. Since this was the first time that gambling was permitted in the UK, the government did not take necessary precautions to control the side effects that are associated with gambling activities. This was the major cause of the rise in crimes in Britain at that time since criminals found these new legalized gambling outlets and casinos as a good place to strengthen their footholds. Moreover, loans and losses in gambling gave birth to new criminals as addicted gamblers adopted thefts, burglaries, and other money-making crimes to fulfill their gambling compulsions. As time passed, lawmakers realized the need for a new act that would focus on these issues that have risen after the legalization of gambling. Therefore, the Gaming Act of 1968 was brought in to impose certain restrictions on the gambling industry. With the introduction of the Gaming Act of 1968, the Gaming Board was seriously planning to put a ban on Roulette but they succumbed to the demands of the gambling industry. (http://www. hca. heacademy. ac. uk/resources/TDG/reports/gaming-example-wolfe. ppt) The launching of the National Lottery and the increasing trend in online gambling during the 1990s led to the revision of betting duty by the British government. Afterwards, the government decreased the taxation on betting activities by a considerable amount. General Betting Duty (GBD), a particular type of tax on betting activities that was charged on the percentage of stakes has been replaced by another one, known as Gross Profits Tax (GPT). This new type of tax is charged on the net profits that a bookmaker makes. They also decided to replace the current general betting duty (GBD), levied as a proportion of betting stakes, with a gross profits tax (GPT), based on the net revenue of bookmakers. (Paton, et. Al, pg. F296)