UK betting shops are fighting for their lives in new regulatory environment

Retail betting shops in the United Kingdom are taking an absolute beating in the wake of new rules and regulations designed to curb the country’s growing issues with problem gamblers. Since new rules limiting the maximum stakes on video betting terminals to just £2 (down from £100) life has not been easy for the land-based gambling industry in England.
Since April of this year, more than 1,000 betting shops have closed their doors across the UK, according to a recent article in the Daily Mail under the a very disturbing headline reading, We’re fighting for our lives, says bookie, as four betting shops a DAY are shut down in war on gambling. The article goes on to point out that another 1,000 or so shops are slated to close down by the end of 2021. That means that roughly 23 percent of the betting shops that were open at the beginning of this year will be gone within two years.
Of course when retail betting parlors disappear, so do the jobs they once supported. While anti-gambling advocates see the situation as good news for problem gamblers, it’s absolutely awful news for the 11,000 people holding those jobs who are facing unemployment.
Of course the gambling industry doesn’t illicit the same sympathy as other industries, a fact noted by retail betting shop employee who told the Daily Mail, “We are fighting for our lives. When Mothercare closed there was lots of sympathy for the people who lost their jobs. But I haven’t heard a single politician show sympathy for anyone out of work in the betting industry. We don’t matter to the Government.'”
Industry insiders point out that problem gamblers have plenty of other options for satiating their gambling desires and will continue to fill them even if every betting shop in the UK shuts its doors for good.