As for the UK, the skyrocketing of online gambling can largely be attributed to the Gambling Act of 2005 which allowed gambling businesses to advertise online casinos, sports betting and poker, even on television and radio.
The Act was then succeeded by the UK Gambling Commission in 2007, which remains a regulatory body even today. The Commission controls the use of sports betting, bingo, lottery, poker, and other categories of casino games.
On top of that, until 2014, the law allowed remote operators to provide services to British consumers without having to hold a UK license. The British are also presented with an exciting selection of online gambling sites, and choosing the best one is not always an easy task.
What drives the growth?
The main reason behind the rise of online casinos is the widespread availability of stable, high-speed internet connections, as well as the increased accessibility to affordable smartphones and other portable devices. Thanks to such technological advances, players can easily access their favourite games whenever they want, at any given time.
And even though there are many complex devices available out there, online gaming does not require costly equipment, which also makes it affordable. Moreover, the latest technologies also enhanced the overall security of the user’s sensitive information, making it much harder to access, even when it comes to skilled hackers.
Finally, the initial growth of the industry was boosted by the recent Covid-19 pandemic which forced people from all over the world to replace their existing habits with home-based entertainment. As a result, people from the UK and Ireland replaced land-based casinos with their online counterparts, learning to embrace the convenience of web-based gaming.
The expansion of mobile
As of 2019, there are more than 2.2 billion mobile gamers on the planet, which serves as one of the main prerequisites for further development of the online gambling market.
As a result, the global online gambling industry is expected to reach $95 billion by the end of 2025, and the expansion will surely affect the stats in the UK and Ireland as well. The leading software developers are aware of the hype behind mobile gaming, so they continue to enhance the offering with new titles, features, and effects.
Next to that, today’s online operators modified and perfected their software so it could work on literally any device. Moreover, leading virtual gambling providers paired their websites with complementing apps that work both on Android and iOS, making it even more convenient for customers to engage in gaming on the go.