UK gambling industry statistics are published twice a year (in May and November) and provide the latest information on each sector regulated by the UK Gambling Commission. The latest statistics, which include online gambling services offered to customers in Britain, cover the period between October 2017 – September 2018.
The total Gross Gambling Yield (GGY) of the Great Britain gambling industry amounted to £14.5 billion (USD 18.3 B), a 0.4% decrease from April 2017 to March 2018. As for the remote (online) sector, GGY reached £5.6 billion (USD 7 B), a 2.9% increase from prior period, holding a 39% of the market share (up 1.2%).
In September 2018, the number of betting shops in Great Britain decreased by 1.5% from March 2018 to 8,423. Gaming machines also fell, by 2.4%, to 183,813, excluding those requiring only a local authority permit.
There were 650 bingo premises in Great Britain in September 2018 (1.1% decrease from March 2018); 152 casinos (one more); 106,670 of employees in the UK gambling industry (1.4% decrease); and 1,639 licensed arcades (5.3% decrease from March 2018). These declines reflect the anticipated adjustments which have been undertaken by UK retail bookmakers with a view to lower the impact of the recent Fixed Odd Betting Terminals (FOBTs) judgement, which in April implemented a new price cap bringing down the maximum betting amount to 2 pounds (USD 2.5) from an earlier 100-pound limit (USD 127.5).
From October 2017 to September 2018, contributions to good causes from The National Lottery recorded £1.5 billion (0.3% increase from April 2017 – March 2018), and £314 million from large society lotteries (5.1% increase).
Ben Haden, Programme Director for Industry Insight said: “Despite the marginal decline across the wider gambling industry, the online gambling sector continues to grow. Our role as regulator will continue to see us working to raise standards right across the industry.”
“Following our comprehensive review of the online gambling sector in 2018, this year we have implemented new rules to strengthen age and ID verification checks and we’ve also been working with partners in financial institutions to develop the role they can play to protect vulnerable consumers,” he added.
And he concluded: “Last month we published the new National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms which has a renewed focus on plans to widen research, take a preventative approach to gambling harms, assess treatment provision, embed a culture of evaluation, and encourage industry to collaborate to make gambling safer.’’