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

Leading bookmaking companies 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 separate 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 have a much lower concentration of wagering stores than more affluent areas. The research found that areas identified as having high quantities of deprivation host 17 percent associated with nation’s high road bookmakers, while 35 percent of shops are observed those certain areas identified as the wealthiest. Meanwhile, 62 percent of most UK shops that are betting found in areas with lower-than-average poverty levels.

No Economic Incentive

The report also found that new shops, rather than appearing in bad areas, have actually really been concentrated in the areas that are least-deprived because, simply put, prosperous places tend to be more lucrative because customers have more income. There is no incentive that is economic consequently, 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 new shop openings are primarily in towns with low and typical deprivation scores not in the poorest areas.’

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

‘We are a definite responsible and industry that is regulated a main-stream leisure product enjoyed by over 8 million people per 12 months,’ said Vennix. ‘We choose where to locate our shops in the same way as any other retailer would using commercial factors such as consumer demand, footfall, and presence that is competitive. It makes no sense whatsoever for us to target poor communities or vulnerable people.’

Called ‘Blight’ By Some

Bookmakers have been under fire recently for recognized aggressive expansion throughout the united kingdom and for the prevalence of fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) in their shops. At the start of last year, federal government retail guru Mary Portas called for measures become taken against the expansion of gambling stores in her review of high street shops, including that these people were ‘blighting our high streets’.

However, the report unearthed that, on the contrary, betting stores had been expanding at a slower price than a number of other businesses. 2013 saw an increase of 1.3 percent in wagering stores, although the wide range of pawnbrokers, coffee shops and convenience stores grew at a rate of 3 percent over that same period.

The publication of the report comes just ahead of a government study into FOBTs, due out this week, which seeks to review policy on the machines. Parliament is seeking to add to the rule of conduct drawn up by the ABB last thirty days by increasing player protection methods and developing spending and time limits for sessions. FOBTs allow customers to wager reasonably considerable amounts sometimes as much as £100 (US$168) per spin on digital casino games. Detractors argue they’ve promoted a resurgence in problem gambling since their introduction to Britain’s bookmaker shops in 2005.