Gambling Commission figures show drop in British gaming revenue

The Gambling Commission has published figures for the six months to September 2020.

UK.- The Gambling Commission has published revenue figures for British gaming licensees for the period from April to September 2020, and the numbers suggest a marked fall in revenue.

There’s no direct comparison available because the Gambling Commission previously produced annual figures rather than a six-month breakdown. However, comparison of the six-month figures against numbers published for the full year April 2019 – September 2020 suggest a significant fall in revenue.

The Gambling Commission reported gross gambling yield (GGY) for the six months to September 2020 at £5.89bn, while GGY for April 2019 – September 2020 was £14.12bn.

The Gambling Commission figures broken down

The latest numbers also show how the market swayed in favour of online offerings during the Covid-19 pandemic, with the land-based sector seeing a significant decline. 

The online gaming sector as a whole accounted for £3.08bn in the six months reported, up 9.6 per cent year-on-year from £2.81bn during the same six months in 2019.

The biggest vertical overall in terms of GGY was online casino, which generated £1.94bn. That was followed by sports betting, which saw GGY of £1.04bn online and £629.3m through land-based retail.

The National Lottery generated £1.61bn, while other lotteries brought in £310.5m. Online bingo outperformed land-based bingo, bringing in £98.1m compared to £92m. Land-based bingo had accounted for £575.2m in the period between April 2019 and March 2020.

Land-based casino revenue was the most severely impacted, generating just £67m compared to £1.02bn for the full year from April 2019 – March 2020. Retail betting brought in £629.3m compared to £2.41bn for the previous full year. 

The Gambling Commission reported that 15.3 million new online gaming accounts were registered during the six months to September 2020. However, the number of active accounts actually fell from 31 million in September 2019 to 30.7 m illion in September 2020.

The number of operators active in the market also declined, falling from 2,689 in March 2019 down to 2,577 in March 2020 and then 2,522 in September 2020.

The number of physical gaming premises fell too, down 10.8 per cent from 10,128 in March 2020 to 9,036 in September.

The Gambling Commission reported 6,735 betting premises (down 12.3 per cent), 1,390 adult gaming centres (down 4.2 per cent), 179 family entertainment centres (down 5.8 per cent), 131 casinos (down 16 per cent) and 601 bingo halls (down 6.3 per cent).

The average number of land-based gaming machines fell 37.7 per cent from 186,832 between April 2019 and March 2020, to 116,333 between April and September 2020.

Gambling Commission drops affordability checks proposal

The Gambling Commission has dropped affordability checks from its points of action for the development of customer intervention measures.

A consultation on interactions with customers opened in November. The measure that drew most attention was the proposal to introduce mandatory affordability checks on players who spend over £100. 

The proposal raised huge concerns in the gambling industry and beyond, with the Gambling Commission extending the deadline on its consultation due to the scale of the response. The regulator received 13,000 submissions of which 1,000 were full responses and 12,000 responses to a short survey.

The horseracing sector in particular voiced fears that the introduction of affordability checks as expressed in the consultation would severely damage the industry’s finances. Concerns were even raised by the British chancellor Rishi Sunak.

As a result the Gambling Commission has excluded the proposal on affordability checks and will instead focus on developing measures to prevent customers from losing large sums while gambling.

There had already been rumours that the regulator would drop the proposed affordability checks. Acting joint chief executive Sarah Gardner appeared to confirm it in a speech at the 2021 Financial Vulnerability Summit last week. 

See also: GC publishes evidence on British credit card gambling ban