UK betting revenue down in 2019

Betting revenue in the UK fell by 0.5% between October 2018 and September 2019 due to betting shop closures.

UK.- New statistics from the Gambling Commission show that gross gambling yield (GGY) fell by 0.5 per cent in the year ending September 2019, compared with the period between April 2018 and March 2019.

Total GGY for the period was £14.26billion, and online casinos became the biggest grossing sector, overtaking land-based betting and the National Lottery for the first time.

Online gaming revenue rose by 4 per cent to £3.19billion, mainly from online slots, while the National Lottery remains the second biggest sector, with GGY up by 3.4 per cent to £3.18billion

But land-based GGY fell by 13.8 per cent to £2.8billion as off-course and pool betting declined and around 1,000 betting shops closed their doors.

The number of betting shops fell by 12 per cent in six months to 7,315 in September 2019 following the introduction of regulations that reduced the maximum stake on B2 fixed-odds betting terminals (FOTBs) from £100 to £2 in April 2019.

GGY for FOTBs fell by 46 per cent from £1.1billion to £624million.

The number of employees in the gambling industry fell to 98,174, a 4.4 per cent decrease from March 2019.

The Gambling Commission statistics can be seen in full here.

In May the Gambling Commission introduced new guidance to protect problem gamblers during the Covid-19 pandemic.