Before the advent of online gambling in 1996, those that wanted to gamble could only do so in the traditional outlets of betting offices, land-based casinos, and gambling arcades. If you looked older than your actual age, then you could risk trying to place a bet at a betting shop or try playing gambling games at arcades, and many individuals did this without being asked any questions regarding their actual age. Attempting to enter a land-based casino was a step too far, even though the underage gambling laws were far more relaxed than they are now – check out pay by vodafone casino slots.
Nowadays, the laws on underage gambling are far stricter and any gambling establishment that allows underage gambling on its premises, or its casino sites faces huge fines or possible closure.
Present UK Gambling Laws
In the UK you have to be 18 years of age or over, to be allowed to legally gamble at betting shops, land-based casinos, or online casinos. When it comes to online gambling, it is far harder to break the law unless you impersonate an adult and have access to their email address, mobile phone number, bank details, and other personal information. Even if you have all this, then you could still be asked for a copy of a passport or driver’s license, and this is even if you pass initial checks. When it comes to land-based gambling, it is up to the staff to make a judgment call and ask any individual they suspect of being underage for ID.
Reasons for Age Limits on Gambling
Just like film classifications, some things in society are best left to adults. If you are underage in the UK, you cannot gamble, buy alcohol or watch 18 rated movies and all of these laws are put into place to protect youngsters who are thought to be vulnerable when it comes to decision making and knowing what is right and wrong.
When it comes to gambling, it is thought that anyone under the age of 18 is extremely susceptible to the temptations of gambling and also to gambling addiction. Therefore, by banning this age group fully from participating in the act of gambling, it is thought that this protects them until they’re old enough to make level-headed decisions regarding gambling, for themselves.
Tightening the Law
The UK Gambling Commission is so worried about the effects of gambling on young people, and especially gambling addiction, that they have now banned sites from offering demo slot play to non-members of casinos that offer the demo play function. Even the sites that review and offer free-to-play online slot games have now been either banned from providing this service to UK citizens, or age verification is needed by providing a date of birth and a mobile phone number that can be used for age verification purposes.
This has been implemented after recent research suggested that demo play slot sites that could be accessed by those under the age of 18, could lead to gambling addiction in certain vulnerable individuals in the future. This is the shape of things to come and even stricter measures are being considered for the near future.
