An online casino is predicting that Britain could become a cashless society by 2043 when the number of transactions undertaken with cash reaches zero percent.
In a report from Finextra, Gala Casino, a popular online casino in the U.K., looked at how cash is declining from usage data from 2004 to 2014. Figures show that it has dropped from 71 percent to 53 percent.
The online casino also looked at Payments UK predictions for 2024, which reported that inter-bank mobile and Internet banking payments saw 1.1 billion payments processed in 2014, a 14 percent increase. By 2024, this is expected to increase by two and a half times. Gala Casino then arrived at 2043 as the year when Britain would become a cashless society.
Stephen Hart, CEO of CardSwitcher, said that moving from cash to cashless will follow the same path as cheques.
He said:
Cheque use has plummeted and there are regular calls for them to be scrapped entirely. This, however, has not happened because there are key groups who still use them.
According to the survey conducted by Gala Casino, 68 percent are reported as stating that they would be scared to live in a society that was entirely cashless.
The U.K. still has many years to go before the projected cashless society becomes a potential reality. And yet, the U.K. is already starting to see how cash is no longer the king of everything.
In a report from Global Payments, a Fortune 1000 company, and one of the largest card payment processors in the world, it found that for purchases £30 or less, contactless payment is becoming a quick and easy way to pay. Furthermore, Londoners use contactless for payments that range from bus journeys, traveling on the underground and paying for parking meters.
Not only that, but research from Lloyds Bank shows that two in five people won’t need to use cash in ten years while one in three people will use a mobile phone for payments within five years.
Bank of England’s Digital Coin
In an attempt to tap into the digital market, the Bank of England revealed last March that it was seeking a digital currency of its own, known as the RSCoin.
With interest growing in Bitcoin banks are keen to maintain a hold on the expanding market particularly at a time when more people are ditching their cash and using the digital currency instead.
Sweden Leads the Way
And yet, it is Sweden who is expected to be the first country to become cashless.
A report in 2014 found that Sweden could become cashless by 2030, with 80 percent of all transactions already being done by debit or credit cards or mobile apps.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
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