When it comes to playing games online, the benefits are manifold. For the player, the advantages range from increased privacy to a much broader range of choice when it comes to genre, game type and more.
But there are also benefits to the operator. Those who run online gambling sites don’t necessarily have to operate a physical location once they place their business online – and while that means they can’t attract passing trade as people walk by on the high street, this can often be outweighed by the much lower overheads. This article will look at the situation in Britain when it comes to operating in-person gambling stores – and why it’s likely that more and more operators will continue to move online.
Economic costs
To the casual user of a betting shop, the costs may seem minimal. The shops are often not highly staffed, for example: it’s quite common to see just one person behind the screen, especially with the rise of interactive and self-service gambling machines. Betting shops aren’t always in the best condition, either. And while some firms have taken a proactive approach to marketing in their windows, other brands appear to have let their in-person advertising budgets go by the wayside.
But the reality is that there are lots of hidden economic costs that gambling firms have to bear when they operate in-person facilities and in environments like the high street. The first is rent: one study found that in a northern city such as Manchester, the average rental cost for prime high street spots was £220 per square foot every year, which for a small shop can quickly add up.
And they are also charged the commercial equivalent of council tax, known as business rates, by the local authority. In some parts of the country, this tends to come in at an average of just under £300 per square metre across England and Wales. For a gambling brand operator, then, there’s an awful lot to think about when it comes to budgeting – and it’s about far more than the cost of sprucing up a shop front.
Death of the high street?
Barely a week goes by without one news outlet or another confidently predicting the demise of the high street. Gone, according to these articles, are the days when a person could walk to their local town centre and do everything from having a flutter on the horses to picking up a new suit. According to this theory, the rise of out-of-town superstores – and, of course, the internet – has fuelled a dramatic change in shopping habits.
For gambling, the picture is complex. It’s certainly true to say that betting shops are often some of the last institutions to go from struggling high streets. But as outlined above, high rents and business rates are hitting even this sector hard. In March of this year, for example, it was revealed that close to 300 in-person gambling locations were set to draw the shutters. And the cause, according to press reports? None other than the rise in online betting. We cannot overlook the fact that an online casino such as Rizk is simply able to offer a significantly better variety of games, which can be played from the comfort of your own home and at a lower operating cost to the company – these are factors that its high-street counterparts struggle to compete with.
Future risk
It’s not just current overheads that get factored into decisions by betting shop operators to shift away from the high street and into the online sphere, though. An assessment of future risk is also often baked into the decisions – and with e-commerce and other sectors growing at a rapid pace, risk managers in gambling firms may well be looking at hypothetical models for high streets in decades to come.
There are a number of different types of slot games available online, and the selection is growing. Even despite government schemes designed to support town centres and high streets, it’s looking fairly unlikely that there’ll be any sort of wholesale reversal in fortunes – and the closure of more and more betting shops in favour of online brands may start to look like a sealed fate.
In short, it’s understandable that gambling companies are starting to think in earnest about shifting to online operations. While online betting precludes a segment of the population who prefer to go down to the local shopping precinct to play, it’s also the case that the costs of operating on the high street – and the risks – are growing. While it’s perhaps not yet in the bag, it’s likely that online is going to become the key context for gambling in the coming years.
