In this paper, the authors employ a large new data set to examine explanations of the tendency for favorites to be under-bet and longshots over-bet in recent British racetrack betting markets. They demonstrate that both demand-and-supply side factors can explain this favorite-longshot bias and...

In October 2001, the U.K. government implemented a dramatic shift in gambling taxation, resulting in a substantial decline in taxes levied on U.K. bookmakers. Using data before and after this event, we present econometric evidence on the demand response to this tax reduction. Our results imply...

P<sc>aton</sc> D. and V<sc>aughan</sc> W<sc>illiams</sc> L. Do new gambling products displace old? Evidence from a postcode analysis. <italic>Regional Studies</italic>. This paper examines the extent to which new gambling products displace traditional products. In particular, it tests whether the introduction of fixed-odds betting...

In this paper we test the hypothesis that bookmakers display superior skills to bettors in predicting the outcome of sporting events by using matched data from traditional bookmaking and person-to-person exchanges. Employing a conditional logistic regression model on horse racing data from the...

In this paper, we examine a relatively novel form of gambling, index (or spread) betting, that mirrors (and indeed overlaps with) practices in conventional financial markets. In this form of betting, a number of bookmakers quote a bid-offer spread about the result of some future event, and...

Several environmental changes in the 1990s--including the introduction of a national lottery, the rise of Internet gambling, and the reduction of trade barriers within the EU--induced the UK government to initiate a large--scale review of betting duty. As a result of this review, the government...

In October 2001, the U.K. government implemented a dramatic shift in the taxation of gambling, resulting in a substantial decline in taxes levied on U.K. bookmakers. Using data before and after this event, we present econometric evidence on the demand response to this tax reduction. Our results...