British land-based gaming revenues decline
Betting shops, casinos and bingo halls all saw declines for the financial year ending March 31.
UK.- Gross gaming yield (stakes minus payouts) fell by 0.6 per cent year-on-year to £14.22bn for the 12 months ending March 31.
Online gaming, including sports betting, bingo and online casino, saw growth while most land-based segments suffered a decline in revenues.
Online revenues grew by 8.1 per cent overall to £5.68bn, making online the largest contributor.
Meanwhile, land-based revenues declined as revenue from B2 gaming machines (fixed-odds betting terminals) plunged by 99 per cent after maximum stakes were slashed to £2 from April 2019.
The last 11 days of the reporting period also coincided with the closure of land-based venues owing to the start of restrictions introduced due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Within the online segment, casino remained the largest contributor, up 3.7 per cent to £3.18bn, but sports betting saw the strongest growth. Revenue from online sports betting grew by 15.5 per cent year-on-year to £2.33bn.
In the land-based segment, the dramatic drop in revenue from B2 machines saw total gaming machine revenue drop by 25.6 per cent to £2.09bn. Some of the drop in revenue from B2 machines was made up by B3 machines, which saw revenue increase by 39.5 per cent to £1.54bn.
The new stake limits on B2 machines impacted overall betting shop revenue by 26.4 per cent, dropping to £2.40bn. The number of betting shops in business fell by 7.7 per cent to 7,681.
Revenues also fell at bingo halls, down 5.7 per cent on the previous financial year to £636m, and at land-based casinos, down 4.0 per cent to £1.02bn. Arcades were the only land-based sector to see growth, with revenue up 8.8 per cent to £477.3m.
The National Lottery saw sales of £5.45bn in retail and £2.46bn in online sales, generating a 10.4 per cent increase in gross gaming yield at £3.40bn.
MPs in the UK have blasted as “farcical” claims from the National Lottery operator, Camelot, that it will take a year to enforce a change in age restrictions on its products.
