BGC highlights surging energy prices as industry threat

The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) issued an update on Monday, August 22, urging the government and the next Prime Minister to act preemptively and protect the regulated betting and gaming industry from mounting and unsustainable energy costs.

BGC CEO Michael Dugher said that urgent action is needed to mitigate the damage rising costs of energy had inflicted on the brick-and-mortar casinos and betting shops. Energy bills had gone up for these businesses just like for anyone else, Dugher said.

Presently, Britain has 6,500 betting shops along with 121 casinos, which in Dugher’s opinion, are the backbone of the hospitality and tourism sectors. The sector creates employment for 44,000 people in direct jobs with additional 48,000 jobs because of the industry. The BGC has reminded in its address that the gambling industry contributes an estimated £4bn to the UK economy.

The BGC’s update claims that businesses will experience an influx of customers because of the global energy crisis. Dugher stressed that there are exponential costs to doing business in these new market realities.

"The cost of simply doing business is rising at an exponential rate. If urgent action isn’t taken soon, continued energy price increases could have a catastrophic impact across the hospitality and leisure sector, including hitting our members," the executive explained.

He further added that any business that welcomes people in person will grapple with the soaring costs of simply keeping the heaton. The energy crisis is not the only issue that the industry currently faces, though, as the global COVID-19 pandemic is not quite over yet.

Dugher touted casinos as vital pillars of the hospitality and tourism sectors and said that they should be assisted in tiding over the pandemic and withstanding the energy crisis. Dugher also said that the expected increase in visitations will climb from the 82% surveyed by ESA Retail research to the 300% now predicted by the executive and trade body, basing this information on research.

This is not the only challenge the industry faces, as the appointment of the next Prime Minister will also coincide with the publication of the White Paper, a long-anticipated review of current gambling laws which is undoubtedly going to split the BGC and some of the hawks in government who feel that gambling should be held to higher compliance standards.

Entain, one of the leading companies in the sector and often used as a benchmark of measurement, had recently received the biggest fine issued by the UK Gambling Commission. This development will be likely used as an argument to urge tougher overall action against gambling companies.

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