It’s really a stylish and long-held belief that the UK’s high street betting shops victimize the poor. Bookmakers spring up in deprived areas, states received wisdom, in order to exploit those currently suffering from economic difficulty.

Leading bookmaking businesses such as William Hill, Ladbrokes and Paddy Power have always strongly denied this, and a new report appears to bear them away, suggesting that the ‘poverty exploitation’ theory is a misconception.

The independent report, that has been carried out by data analyst the Local Data Company at the behest associated with Association of British Bookmakers (ABB), concludes great britain’s poorest areas actually have a much lower concentration of betting shops than more affluent areas. The study discovered that areas identified as having high levels of deprivation host 17 percent regarding the nation’s high road bookmakers, while 35 percent of shops are observed those areas defined as the wealthiest. Meanwhile, 62 percent of all of the UK shops that are betting 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 actually been concentrated in the least-deprived areas, because, simply put, prosperous areas tend to be more lucrative because customers have more money. There is no economic motivation, therefore, to target the vulnerable.

‘There is nothing within the information to suggest that bookmakers deliberately target poor and vulnerable people,’ said Local Data business director Matthew Hopkinson. ‘Our analysis shows shop that is new are primarily in towns with low and typical deprivation ratings not in the poorest areas.’

ABB chief executive Dirk Vennix said he hoped the findings would ‘dispel some myths that are damaging by those attempting to demonize and toxify our industry.’

‘We really are a responsible and regulated industry selling a conventional leisure product enjoyed by over 8 million people per year,’ stated Vennix. ‘We choose where you can locate our shops in the same way as any other retailer would using commercial facets such as consumer demand, footfall, and competitive existence. It makes no feeling whatsoever for us to target poor communities or vulnerable people.’

Called ‘Blight’ By Some

Bookmakers have been under fire recently for observed expansion that is aggressive 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 to be taken against the proliferation of betting stores inside her review of traditional shops, adding that these people were ‘blighting our high streets’.

However, the report discovered that, on the other hand, wagering shops were expanding at a slower rate than a great many other businesses. 2013 saw an increase of 1.3 % in gambling stores, whilst the wide range of pawnbrokers, coffee shops and convenience stores expanded at a rate of 3 percent over that same period.

The publication of the report comes just in front of a government study into FOBTs, due out this which seeks to review policy on the machines week. Parliament is seeking to add to the code of conduct drawn up by the ABB month that is last increasing player protection methods and establishing 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 that they have promoted a resurgence in problem gambling since their introduction to Britain’s bookmaker shops in 2005.