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Statistics and research release

Industry Statistics – July 2022 - Revision

The latest statistics cover the period between April 2020 to March 2021.

Summary

Gambling Industry Statistics report on the size and shape of the customer facing gambling industry in Great Britain.

This report provides an overview of business to customer Gross Gambling Yield (GGY) made by licensed gambling operators from Great British (GB) gambling customers, by sector, along with the numbers of licensed operators and premises. It is based on data reported to us by the operators we license and regulate.

This is a revision of the data published in November 2021, in which the inclusion of figures for the most recent period, April 2020 to March 2021, was affected by the impact of restrictions during the pandemic of Covid-19. The lack of and quality of data submissions from some operators and resource required for the consequential quality assurance resulted in a reduced publication which only covered Remote Casino, Betting and Bingo (RCBB), the National Lottery, and the numbers of operators and licences held for this period.

This revision includes data from all the land based non-remote sectors and the society lottery sector which were omitted from the last publication.

The accompanying data file includes figures for all sectors, based on data from April 2020 to March 2021, as well as historical data back to 2009.

Various lockdown rules and restrictions throughout the latest reporting period (opens in a new tab) have significantly impacted the gambling industry. This mainly involved land-based sectors of the industry, but the restrictions also affected live sporting events which may have impacted the remote sector.

Therefore, we have not included estimated figures where returns have either been late or are not yet due, as we would not expect the previous period’s figures to be comparable to the figures from the pandemic affected period. We accept that this may result in some figures which underestimate the actual totals. The methodology we use for estimations is available on our website.

Key facts

  • £12.7 billion - Total Gross Gambling Yield (GGY) of the Great Britain gambling industry
    (April 2020 to March 2021) (11.0% (percent) decrease from April 2019 to March 2020).

  • £8.5 billion - Total GGY of the gambling industry in Great Britain (excluding all reported lotteries)
    (April 2020 to March 2021) (16.8% decrease from April 2019 to March 2020).

  • 8,625 - Total number of premises in Great Britain
    (April 2020 to March 2021) (14.8% decrease from April 2019 to March 2020).

  • 6,462 - Total number of betting shops in Great Britain
    (April 2020 to March 2021) (15.9% decrease from April 2019 to March 2020).

  • £6.9 billion - Total GGY for Remote Betting, Bingo and Casino Sector
    (April 2020 to March 2021) (18.4% increase from April 2019 to March 2020).

  • £1.7 billion - Total GGY for Land-based Sectors (Arcades, Betting, Bingo and Casino)
    (April 2020 to March 2021) including gaming machines (62.5% decrease from April 2019 to March 2020).

  • £907.5 million - Total GGY for gaming machines in Great Britain
    (April 2020 to March 2021) (55.3% decrease from April 2019 to March 2020) (excludes those requiring only a local authority permit).

  • £1.7 billion - Primary Contributions (to good causes) from The National Lottery
    (April 2020 to March 2021) (4.0% increase from April 2019 to March 2020).

  • £401.9 million - Contributions to good causes from large society lotteries
    (April 2020 to March 2021) (9.2% increase from April 2019 to March 2020).

  • 2,442 - Gambling operators in the market
    (31 March 2021) (5.4% decrease 31 March 2020).

  • 3,372 - Gambling activities licenced
    (31 March 2021) (4.6% decrease from 31 March 2020).

Details

Remote gambling

Remote Casino, Betting and Bingo (RCBB) accrued £6.9 billion Gross Gambling Yield (GGY) which can be broken down into the following 3 individual areas:

  • online casino games dominate the sector, generating £4.0 billion in GGY, £2.9 billion of which was from slots games
  • GGY for remote betting totalled £2.6 billion, led by football (£1.2 billion) and horse betting (£856.1 million)
  • GGY for remote bingo totalled £189.1 million.

This reporting period saw an increase in the number of active accounts with RCBB operators (up 7.6 percent to 32.0 million), though this figure is still lower than the peak of 34.2 million in 2017/18.

The number of new account registrations went up 10.2 percent to 33.0 million (0.9 percent lower than the peak in 2018/19). The total funds held in customer accounts went up 31.1 percent to £893.8 million, though this figure is still lower than the peak in 2019.

Non-remote gambling

Non-remote betting Gross Gambling Yield (GGY) was the third largest sector by GGY with £1.0 billion (a 57.1 percent reduction on the previous period). GGY at venues (on-course), at betting shops (off-course), and pool betting all decreased. Within off-course data, machines GGY decreased by £604.3 million to £472.9 million. Machines represented 45.6 percent of total GGY in the non-remote betting sector. Total numbers of betting premises have continued to decline for the seventh consecutive reporting period to 6,462 (15.9 percent down on the previous period).

The non-remote casino sector saw a decrease of £900.9 million in GGY to £116.7 million. There was a decrease in GGY from casino games of £718.1 million (89.7 percent). GGY from casino-based machines decreased by £182.7 million (84.3 percent).

Non-remote bingo GGY decreased to £246.3 million (down 57.3 percent). There was a decrease in GGY from bingo games of £170.0 million (down 60.1 percent). GGY from bingo-based machines decreased by £160.0 million (down 54.5 percent).

In the arcades sector, adult gaming centres showed a GGY decrease of £148.9 million (39.0 percent), to £233.0 million. GGY for licensed family entertainment centres GGY also decreased, by 43.8 percent to £34.1 million. Note that this data does not include family entertainment centres which operate using a permit from a local authority.

Lotteries

April 2020 to March 2021 saw increases in total sales, prizes, and contributions to good causes in the lotteries sector for both the National Lottery and the other lotteries that we license.

This period saw the highest annual National Lottery sales since we started reporting these statistics, along with strong levels of Returns to Good Causes. National Lottery ticket sales totalled £8.4 billion, of which £4.9 billion was returned as prizes. Over the same period, the primary contribution to good causes totalled £1.7 billion.

Lotteries (excluding the National Lottery and small society lotteries) ticket sales totalled £871.7 million, of which £236.7 million was returned as prizes. Over the same period, the contribution to good causes totalled £401.9 million. This is the highest contribution figure reported to date.

Interactive dashboard

View our Industry Statistics interactive dashboard (opens in a new tab)

Accessibility of this dashboard

This dashboard is in Microsoft Power BI which may not fully support all accessibility needs. You can find the source data in Industry Statistics - July 2022 Revision.

Some files may not be accessible for users of assistive technology. If you require a copy of the file in an accessible format contact us with details of what you require. It would help us to know what technology you use and the required format.

Notes

This publication is primarily for anyone who has an involvement or interest in the gambling industry including government, licensed operators, trade bodies, international regulators, journalists, academic researchers, financial institutions, statisticians, consumers, and local authorities.

About the status official statistics.

Read about how we prepare our Industry Statistics.

We intend to publish the next industry statistics on 24th November 2022.

Data and downloads

Files

Feedback

We are always keen to hear how these statistics are used and would welcome your views on this publication.

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