New data shows 7.3 per cent rise in British gambling yield
The Gambling Commission’s latest annual industry statistics are being used to support calls for an increase in gambling tax in the Autumn Budget this week.
UK.- The Gambling Commission has reported that gross gambling yield (GGY) from the regulated British gambling industry reached £16.8bn in the year ending March 31 2025. That represents an increase of 7.3 per cent year-on-year.
The regulator’s annual statistics show that the rise was mainly been driven by GGY generated from online gambling, which rose by 13.1 per cent to £7.8bn. Remote casino, betting and bingo (RCBB) accounted for 46 per cent of the market in terms of GGY, while the land-based sector (arcades, betting, bingo and casinos combined had a 29 per cent of market share at £4.8bn.
Licensed lotteries, including the National Lottery and society lotteries, comprised 25 per cent of industry GGY at £4.2bn. Excluding lotteries, GGY over the 12 months was £12.6bn, an increase of 9.3 per cent.
Advocates for gambling reforms, including the Conservatives’ Iain Duncan Smith, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Gambling Harm, and Meg Hillier, chair of the Treasury Committee, have been quick to use the statistics to support their call for the British chancellor Rachel Reeves to include a rise in British gambling tax in her Autumn Budget presentation tomorrow (November 26).
How many licensees are there on the British gambling market?
The Gambling Commission reported that at the end of March there were 2,179 gambling operators on the British market. That’s a 3.7 per cent decrease from March 31 2024. Some 3,086 gambling activities were licensed, a decrease of 2.3 per cent.
In terms of land-based gambling venues, there were 8,234 licensed gambling premises in Great Britain, a decline of 1.1 per cent. The number of betting shops fell by 1.8 per cent to 5,825, marking the eleventh consecutive year of decline.
The Gambling Commission recently suspended the licence of Deadheat Racing.
British gambling yield by sector
The £7.8bn in remote gaming GGY comprised £5bn from online casino games, including £4.2bn generated by online slots, plus £2.6bn from remote betting and £165.6m from remote bingo. Within remote betting, football accounted for £1.3bn and horse racing £766.7m.
This year saw a decrease in the number of new account registrations (down 4.1 per cent to 34m). The number of active accounts was 24.4m and funds held in customer accounts totalled £1bn, a 6.9 per cent decrease on the same period last year.
In the land-based sector, non-remote betting GGY was £2.5bn, a 0.7 per cent increase. Off-course machines GGY decreased by 2.2 per cent to £1.2bn (48.2 per cent of GGY in the non-remote betting sector). However, the non-remote casino sector saw a £68.6m increase (7.9 per cent) in GGY to £933.8m. Casino games generated £702.4m and machines £231.5m).
Non-remote bingo GGY was £650.4m, a 3.5 percent increase. This comprised £226.4m from bingo games and £424m from bingo machines. Non-remote arcade GGY was £723.3m, a rise of 9 per cent: £682.9m from adult gaming centres (up 9.6 per cent) and £40.3m from family entertainment centres (down 0.4 per cent). This does not include family entertainment centres which operate using a permit from a local authority.
Lotteries
National Lottery ticket sales totalled £7.9bn in the 12 months from April 2024 to March 2025. That’s an increase of 0.8 per cent on the previous financial year). some £4.5bn was returned as prizes, an increase of 0.5 per cent, while contributions to good causes reached £1.6bn, a rise of 4.5 per cent.
Large society lottery ticket sales totalled £1.1bn, a rise of 4.7 per cent, of which £316.3m was returned as prizes (up by 4.6 per cent). Contributions to good causes rose by 4.8 per cent to £484.6m.
New quarterly gambling statistics
Alongside the annual statistics, the Gambling Commission has also begun publishing quarterly statistics following changes made in July 2024 to the regulator’s requirements for gambling operators’ regulatory returns. The new quarterly statistics include core data such as GGY and premises numbers but does not include lotteries or some of the additional detail found in the annual publication.
The first quarterly report shows that GGY for the period from April 2025 to June 2025 reached £3.3bn. That was from 8,219 premises. Remote gaming revenue reached £2bn, including £1.4bn of online casino revenue. Non-remote GGY was £1.2bn.
