Northern Ireland report shows drop in land-based gambling revenue

The Department for Communities has published its second annual report on Northern Ireland’s gambling sector.

UK.- The government of Northern Ireland’s Department for Communities (DfC) has published its second annual report on the gambling sector. The report compares licensing and industry data from 2023 against the previous year.

The report shows that the number of permits for gaming machines with payouts of up to £25 fell from 119 in 2022 to 114 in 2023. Despite the drop in the number of permits, where was an increase in the number of machines covered from 5,901 to 6,457.

Meanwhile, the number of permits for gaming machines with lower payouts of up to £8 rose from 18 to 24. The number of machines more than doubled from 377 to 855. The number of gaming machine certificate permits, which allow holders to supply and maintain gaming machines fell from 41 to 31, indicating consolidation in the sector.

There were two lottery certificates for external lottery consultants and managers. As for society and charity lotteries, 52 new licences were granted and 124 were renewed. There were two horse racing tracks and two dog racing tracks, while the number of bookmaker licences remained flat at 103. The number of individual bookmaking office licences rose from 279 to 285.

The number of people employed in the Northern Ireland gambling sector rose slightly from 2,185 in 2022 to 2,240 in 2023. Land-based gambling and betting turnover continued a longstanding downward trend, falling £228m. Online gambling data is not monitored as the sector is still unregulated in Northern Ireland as progress on Northern Ireland’s proposed Gambling Bill remains stalled.