Betting shop decline

The demise of the traditional bookmaker has been predicted following the launch of a broadband racing service from Trinity Mirror, Racing UK and five bookmakers, which will offer live online streamed coverage of 4,000 races a year direct to people’s home computers, from where they can also bet. The roots of this decline, according to industry pundits, can be traced back to the launch of the lottery. At launch, for example, around 900,000 people regularly played the pools. That number is now down to just 100,00 thanks to the low entry cost and potentially huge jackpots offered by the National lottery.

- 1/9/05