Poker and Gambling changing life style in UK

Gambling is a term comes with sense of betting games, the existence of gambling is very ancient. It denotes as sign of bad addiction habits. UK is top on spending on gambling per household, particularly in online sector and online poker. Couples of high profile names are playing poker, since the launch of Sky Poker TV Channels. Online has expanded its legs with the mushrooming of online poker sites. Now poker gambling has become the source of earning for many people.

Currently there are four gambling channels running in UK and there are around 200 poker sites that can be played around the globe, making online gambling an entertainment and pastime for net users.

UK people love to gamble. The tendency to gamble in UK is highest (62%) just behind Australia and Sweden, amazingly somewhat less per population than the US where only 62% of the population gambles.

A figure of £1266 per capita, collectively £76 billion a year, and 7.7% of GDP has been quoted in some press releases, compared to that of £600 per capita in 2004.This was the report from UK Gambling Commission and it also covered that the UK also has one of the biggest gambling spend per capita of any other country in Europe.

There are 33 million people in UK who gambles and biggest question is that, what types of gambling they are spending most and what is the place of poker in the list.

Now lets see the measurement of Gambling .The top most is horse racing ,and then dog racing, also gambling like bingo, national lotteries, pools and scratch cards. There is also casino gambling and slot machine gambling, and then you have online gambling.

In UK lottery is most popular form of gambling with 65% of the population. Scratch cards are second most popular gambling with 22% for each week. Slot machine gambling with 14%, horse/dog racing 13%, and pools, 9%.

It is surprising that actually only 3% of the population gambles online (in online casinos or poker rooms). On the other hand it proves that there is a scope and growth in UK market. Researches also show that females gamble online more than males. The percentage is 70% female to 30% male.

Figures of amount spent on gambling

Approximate figures, provided by the Gambling Commission, are £3.80 per household is spent each week on the National Lottery and £4.00 per week spent on pools, scratch cards and other types of lotteries. £7.20 each week is used up on bingo, £5.00 used up for sports betting, and approximately £20 in land-based casinos. Approximately £10 per week is spent on online gambling and £5.00 on slot machines.

Through data we can read that online gambling is one of the major gambling expenditure in UK people. Actual figures of online Poker is not clear, but through Poker sites figures are around £7.00 per household.

What is clear is that people love playing poker and it is not only men who have taken up this pastime. High profile female figures have begun to enjoy poker and the BBC reported one woman helping to support her family by playing poker at home.

Seeing the situation UK government has decided to take serious efforts, to reduce the problems created by gambling, for this the UK Gambling Act coming into force in September 2007.The government are suggesting that the Act will help reduce people tendency to gamble and will also protect children’s future and problems addicted gamblers.