Ladbrokes comes out on top for preventing underage betting

The Gambling Commission has just published results of underage gambling tests carried out at the five biggest named betting companies.  The tests were to see how many betting shops allowed underage people to place bets, the most recent results were carried out in the wake of disastrous results when the tests were last carried out in May this year. The Gambling Commission had been very concerned by the previous results but luckily for the industry there have been marked inprovements in the latest results that were published as a press release on 3rd December.

Ladbrokes came out very well in the latest betting shop test results with 74% of underage players in the test being refused the facility to place a bet in the Ladbrokes betting shops. William Hill were next on the list with a fairly respectable 68% followed by Tote with 63%, then Betfred 30% with the least successful at deterring underage gamblers Gala Coral who only managed to prevent 57% of the sample placing a bet.  The good news is that the average of 65% over the 160 betting shops is regarded by the Commission as something of a small success, the Commission will now be in talks with the five betting shop operators to discuss hoe further improvements can be made to the results.

The Gambling Commission is committed to a continued programme of test purchase visits to the major betting shops which is hoped will keep the larger operators on their toes.  Small betting shop operators unfortunately fared very badly in the spot tests with only 35% of underage gamblers refused the option to place a bet.  The Gambling Commission is working with local councils to try to improve results and to stop those under 18 from placing illegal bets in high street betting shops. The full results can be found by following the link.