The ongoing effects of deregulation on betting shop customer profile and behaviour

Abstract

The betting industry has attempted to exploit recent regulatory and technological developments by providing off-course gamblers with new betting opportunities, first through opening their shops for evening and Sunday racing, and, secondly, through the development of telebetting. So far, in spite of industry efforts, both strategies have performed poorly, with off-course betting customers continuing as they always have by betting predominantly in betting shops and at traditional times. Drawing upon an ongoing study of gambling, this paper analyses this reluctance to change, and explains the nature of the difficulties the industry has encountered. First, the paper examines the development of betting shops since legalization, and shows how modern customer profile and behaviour is still influenced by the legacies of prohibition and the restrictions of the 1960 Betting Act. Secondly, it shows how different categories of betting shop punters visit the shops at different times during the day, and engage in different activities within the shops. Doing so, it explains how their activities are inextricably bound up with economic, social and psychological circumstances and factors both within and outside the shops, and how, because of these interrelationships, the visits and activities become routinized and resistant to change. Through this consideration of the historical development of the modern customer base, and of the routinized activities of the different categories of customers, the paper thus analyses why customer uptake of the new betting opportunities has so far been low.