The BDO Fraudtrack report has just been published and it revealed some very interesting information regarding gambling in the UK and the links between gambling and frauds.
As it turns out, 1 in every 8 cases of fraud, or a total of 12.5% are connected with gambling. The focus of the report are fraud cases whose value exceeds £50,000. That may seem like a lot of money to most of us, but there are certain slot games, especially progressive jackpots that feature amounts that go way above £50K.
The report also shows that in the UK in 2015 there were reported frauds in a total value of £1.5 billion which more than twice the amount that was reported during 2014 and the highest figure since 2011.
But, the overall number of frauds that were reported is actually lower by 5.2% compared to 2014. Namely, there were 519 fraud cases in 2015. The average value of the reported fraud cases is significantly higher, £2.9 million, which is 121% more than 2014 and few of the cases that were brought to court were over £250 million.
Paul Buck, who is in charge of EPIC, an organisation that provides problem gambling consultancy said that the report highlights the risk of problem gambling in the workplace, among other things. He added that the seriousness of the problem is shown by the fact that only two years ago just less than 1% of the fraud cases had to do with gambling, whereas now it is 12.5%.
Moreover, Buck noted that BDO only takes into consideration cases above £50,000, whereas most gambling related fraud are of a lesser value, with average of £16,825, which, he argued, makes the problem even more serious.