There are no two ways about it: Brits love to gamble. Research published on the website of consumer and market data company Statista found that 26.9% of the respondents participated in gambling once per week and that 21.2% of the respondents did so twice or more per week.
According to data from the UK Gambling Commission, from April 2021 to March 2022, the gambling industry generated a total gross gambling yield (GGY) of £12.7 billion. In Great Britain, a total gross gambling yield of £8.5 billion was generated. This didn’t include reported lotteries.
Below is a look at gambling in the UK, with a special focus on Birmingham, of course, looking at some of the city’s best loved casinos and what the future may hold in store for land-based establishments.
Gaming in the UK and its major cities
Online gambling has become especially popular in the UK. According to data, from April 2021 to March 2022, there were approximately 32.65 million new registrations for online gambling in Great Britain.
In May 2020, the BBC had already reported online that online casino searches had hit an all-time high. As people looked for new forms of entertainment that year, they started to turn to online gaming operators to find it. Online casino games boomed in popularity, with providers offering slot games, poker games, roulette, and blackjack games as well as many other casino favourites.
That’s not to say that offline casino gaming isn’t popular. The UK Gambling commission reports that from the March 2020 to April 2021 period, the non-remote gambling sector, which includes bingo, casinos and arcades still generated £1.7 billion despite world events.
There’s plenty of demand for land-based gaming establishments and you’ll lots in the UK. The UK’s major cities such as London, Manchester, Edinburgh and, naturally, Birmingham are the best places to visit if you’re looking for casino gaming.
Birmingham’s best-loved casinos
Birmingham has some splendid casinos. Here are three of the best if you’re looking to get glammed up and play the night away at the tables:
Grosvenor Broad Street
The Grosvenor Casino Broad Street, in the heart of the city centre, opens at 11 am, with the tables open for gaming from 2 pm right through until 6 am each day. That gives you lots of time to sit down and just enjoy participating in the action. Games you can play while at the casino include roulette, poker and blackjack. If you’re not in the mood for table games, you can relax with some slots.
Grosvenor Casino Hill Street
The Grosvenor Casino Hill Street is one of the main casinos in Birmingham and gets the table gaming going from 12 midday, letting it continue through until 6 am each day. Casino gamers can play roulette, punto banco, blackjack and three-card poker. There’s also electronic roulette, a selection of slots and a 125-seat card room that has a private gaming area. As well as a restaurant and bar, the casino has a smoking terrace.
Rainbow Casino
The Rainbow Casino, out on Portland Road, isn’t too far from the city centre and offers interesting gaming for players. In this vibrant, energetic casino, you can sit down to Mah jong, punto banco, roulette or blackjack. There are also slots if you don’t feel like spending all your evening at the tables but still want to game. The casino has a designated smoking area, as well as a bar and restaurant.
The potential future of land-based casinos
When online casino gaming entered the industry, land-based casinos began to fear it could be the beginning of the end for them. Although there has been some decline, it could be said that the online sphere has even been a blessing. Operators have started to make the most of online technologies to serve their customers and reach out to them. This includes working together with their online sites and leveraging virtual reality technology so that players can play from the comfort of their homes and feel as if they’re in the casino.
Another thing to watch out for is the use of robotics. Some land-based casinos have begun to experiment with robot croupiers. Whether robot croupiers are the future is hard to say, but they’re certainly an exciting development.
One other trend is that that operators aren’t only investing money in their gaming offerings. Non-gaming amenities have taken on a greater significance and casinos are exploring this so they can win a greater share of the overall tourism that their cities experience. You may even reach a point when you visit a casino purely for the restaurant or the bar, rather than its gaming facilities.
Online casino gaming has become incredibly popular in the UK, but offline casino gaming is still holding its own. The experience of playing in a traditional casino is one that people will seek for years to come, especially as the establishments harness technologies and invest in their facilities to make a player’s visit a worthwhile one.
