UK businesses lose GBP300 million

[jetset]

BRIT WORKERS WHITTLE AWAY BUSINESS PRODUCTIVITY BY BETTING ONLINE

New survey has small sample but big money numbers

A survey of 664 UK office workers by the Morse business and technology consultancy, together with unspecified "workplace information" from the Office of National Statistics claims that online gambling whilst at work costs British companies more than GBP 300 million a year.

Reporting on the survey, the BBC said that millions of Brits gamble online every month, with 30 percent of them doing it at the office with a consequent loss of productivity quantified at GBP 300 million or more.

The survey results suggested that individuals who gambled on the internet at work were likely to spend a total of 13 hours a year doing so.

Northern England had the most gamblers, with 35 percent making bets compared to 29 percent in the South and 27 percent in the Midlands.

Philip Wicks, from the Morse business and technology consultancy, said: "Many employees have unmonitored access to the internet and the fact that they can now follow most sporting events online, coupled with the rise of internet gambling websites, has tempted people to place a 'quick' bet online.

"However these bets all add up and can greatly impact on businesses' productivity."

The survey said 38 percent of the men questioned admitted to gambling online, compared to 21 percent of women.

Bets were most often placed on the National Lottery, followed by football matches, horse races and online poker games.

[vinylweatherman]

13 hours a YEAR!!

More like a WEEK I would think. Once workers see they can get away with spending the time, I expect they will spend a great deal of time "multitasking", running a poker or casino application and trying to do their work at the same time.
Online gambling is a leisure activity, it should ideally be reserved for the home. Maybe some players use the office PC to hide the activity from their family.
This is a problem that will get worse now that online gaming is becoming mainstream in the UK this year. Adverts are everywhere, and new players are likely to wander into an online gaming site while idling away a few spare minutes at the office.
Staff will object to monitoring, but workplaces could implement a blocklist for gaming sites, and other sites that cannot possibly be relevant to work, such as pornography, and music/video downloads.
Online casinos need to do their bit, and stop demanding work phone/fax and employment status at sign-up. It is an irrelevance to a leisure activity, and if casinos are considered to be encouraging participation while at work they will soon have the business community after them.

[GrandMaster]

Maybe some players use the office PC to hide the activity from their family.

For many people the office is still the only place where they have access to a computer and the internet.

Online casinos need to do their bit, and stop demanding work phone/fax and employment status at sign-up. It is an irrelevance to a leisure activity, and if casinos are considered to be encouraging participation while at work they will soon have the business community after them.

I could not agree more. I certainly never give out my real office phone number, I just put my home number, after all, I could be working from home, retired, unemployed, living off my investments, etc.

[winbig]

Not to mention if a casino were to fall under any legal action, and the cops showed up at somebody's job to investigate.