The United Kingdom is known to always be on the list of the top countries that gamble worldwide. This is mainly because of its relaxed gambling legislation. Most forms of gambling in the UK is legal.

When it comes to the most popular way that the locals of the UK gamble, sports betting is on top of the list. The locals here not only love watching sports, but they also take sports wagering seriously.

When it comes to the favorite sport that the UK locals love betting on, it’s definitely football. This involves the Premier and Championship League. Other sports that they wager the most on include tennis and cricket.

The online betting industry is continuously growing and like in most parts of the world where gambling is legal, betting online is becoming more and more popular.

Online gambling, in general, is legal and mainly unrestricted in the country. However, since the UK’s law isn’t strict about gambling, the UK is easily one of the countries with the most gambling issues or problems.

What’s good is that the UK government sees and accepts this. It’s why necessary steps are then taken to lessen the risks of gambling in general.

Recently, the government pushed for changes when it comes to verifying the customers who are registering for online casinos and bookies. These online gambling operators are now responsible to make sure that whoever is registering on a gambling site is not a minor. The operators are given 72 hours to work on each registration.

This step is applicable to all online gambling operators like casinos and football or cricket bookies online. This will ensure that no minors or children will be exposed to gambling.

Even if gambling is generally legal in the UK, many are still surprised about how some casinos and sports betting operators are allowed to freely advertise gambling activities even on TV when kids are watching. This is why they are now pushing for more efforts to ensure that safe gambling will be promoted.

That is also part of the objectives and pledges that five of the major gambling operators in the country recently announced. These companies pledged to make sure that no children will be exposed to gambling activities and that they will work on promoting safe gambling practices.

Included in these pledges are these companies ensuring that they also improve their efforts when it comes to aiding the gambling problems in the country. They will do this by helping with the treatment of people with gambling issues and by conducting seminars that concern gambling.

These betting firms who pledged for more efforts to ensure safe gambling is mainly after showing the UK government that they themselves are also concerned about the increasing gambling troubles in the country.

All these commitments will be facilitated through the Senet Group. It’s a group that is industry-funded. Its goal is to raise the standards in the sector to support the Gambling Commission’s advocacy for safe gambling.

According to Peter Jackson, the chief executive of Flutter Entertainment, the owner of Paddy Power and Betfair, “These commitments are an important step forward for the sector in their own right and also signal genuine desire to ensure that acting responsibly is at the heart of our business.”

Another innovation that was recently introduced to promote safer gambling is the use of Artificial Intelligence that is part of the efforts from the Betting and Gaming Council.

The council introduced an AI program that is called the Anonymous Player Awareness System or the APAS This system is designed to look into the habits of the players when they are gambling.

If the system detects issues like gamblers chasing their losses, gamblers who play erratically, and gamblers who speed up when losing, whatever machine they are playing on will shut down. This system may be launched and released by next year.

The UK is also set to ban advertisements and block illegal gambling sites in the country. These are basically unlicensed and/or shady online casinos and bookies who would give their customers a hard time to withdraw their winnings. Sometimes, they can’t withdraw their funds at all.

The blocking of websites will be facilitated by the ISPs in the country. There is already a list of what bookies and casinos will be blocked in the country. They still plan on adding more names on the list and so fewer locals will be preyed on by shady gambling operators.