With a lack of consumer familiarity with casinos and the games played proving a major reason for deterring would-be visitors, how can the industry best create new modes of awareness?

Is unregulated online gambling likely to cause a serious threat to the industry or can the Internet be a way of actually stimulating renewed interest in casinos?

With much anticipation for the Gambling Review Body report findings in June 2001, the UK's 118 casinos have experienced renewed success in the last year with a modernised Roulette paving the way for further advances.

With a lack of consumer familiarity with casinos and the games played proving a major reason for deterring would-be visitors, how can the industry best create new modes of awareness?

Is unregulated online gambling likely to cause a serious threat to the industry or can the Internet be a way of actually stimulating renewed interest in casinos?

With much anticipation for the Gambling Review Body report findings in June 2001, the UK's 118 casinos have experienced renewed success in the last year with a modernised Roulette paving the way for further advances.

When Mintel last reported on the casinos industry in 1998, an excessively strict and archaic regulatory regime, the Asian financial crisis and an ill-timed increase in the rate of gaming duty were all cited as factors holding the market back. While the state of many Asian economies appear to have improved slightly since then, and subsequent gaming duty increases have been in line with inflation, the burden of archaic legislation remains largely unchanged. As a consequence, the casinos industry is still struggling to compete effectively against other forms of gaming.

Hope lies on the horizon in the form of a potential widespread deregulation of gaming law arising from the forthcoming report of the Gambling Review Body. However, this is some way off, given that even if the Home Secretary agrees with all the Body's recommendations and commits to their implementation, substantial legislative changes would take some time to work their way through both Houses of Parliament to become law. There is also the spectre of growing competition for UK casinos from unregulated online casinos, which can be accessed via the Internet from the UK, but are not regulated by UK authorities. Therefore, Mintel predicts that the casinos industry faces a challenging period during the next five years.

Mintel last covered the casinos industry in the Casinos Leisure Intelligence, December 1998, however, other reports of relevance are:

Gambling and Gaming, The Internet Series, December 2000

Bingo, Leisure Intelligence, May 1999

The National Lottery, Leisure Intelligence, December 1999

Gaming Machines, Leisure Intelligence, February 2000

Bingo, Leisure Intelligence, April 2001

Online Betting, Leisure Intelligence, May 2001

Betting Shops, Leisure Intelligence, July 2001.