RGA: Women Prefer Online Gambling

Women prefer online gambling to the traditional male environment of the betting shop, it has been claimed.

Online gambling is much more appealing to women than a trip to a betting shop, an industry body has claimed.

The suggestion came from the Remote Gambling Association (RGA) in the wake of a report that revealed the number of British women staking money via the internet, digital television or mobile phone is rising.

Statistics compiled by the Gambling Commission showed that 6.5 per cent of women had taken part in some form of remote gambling in July 2008, compared with the five per cent reported in a similar study two years earlier.

Brian Wright, the RGA's business director, said that online gambling is much less intimidating to women than the "generally male-orientated environment" found in high street betting shops.

"Online you don't have any of those barriers and a woman is treated in the same way as any other player," he continued.

Bingo and poker are particularly popular with female gamblers on the internet, added Mr Wright.