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Despite the UK threatening its gambling industry with tougher regulations and laws, the remote gambling sector has recorded record growth and isn’t showing signs of slowing down.
Exactly one year ago, the UK government launched a major and wide-ranging review of gambling laws. The UK Gambling Commission, the country’s ultimate authority on all things gambling-related, said that it would consider issues such as online stake limits, gambling advertisements and age limits. It also said that its own role and powers would be looked at, and possibly extended.
The findings of this review haven’t yet been used to inform any change to the Gambling Act of 2005, but they are due at the start of the new year.
With that grey cloud hanging over the industry’s head, one would think that we’d see an impact on its growth and revenues. One would think that people would be hesitant to invest in companies that may be impacted by more stringent laws and regulations.
However, the latest numbers reported by the Gambling Commission show a record growth in online gambling yield in 2020-21. From this we can deduce that the threat of strict gambling laws in the UK are having negligible effect on the industry’s overall growth.
New High for Remote Gaming in UK
In a report published a few weeks ago by the UKGC, it was shown that gross gaming yield in the country hit a new high in the 12 months ending March 31st, 2021. This, despite COVID-19 which heavily impacted the UK during this period, resulting in lockdowns and a change in the way local players gamble.
Online bingo, online betting and online casinos all reported the highest gross gaming yield over any prior year, with total revenue from these three sectors resulting in a turnover of £141.38 billion. This was up 18.1% from the previous year.
Remote Casino Gambling
According to CasinoShortlist, the leading online casino guide, remote casino licensees contributed the most to the online gross gaming yield. These online casinos brought in GGY of £4.02 billion, which was a leap of over 26% compared to the same period last year.
The most popular and highest-yielding casino games in the UK were online slots, which contributed a total of £2.91 billion (an increase of 22%).
Online Betting
Despite the fact that the coronavirus pandemic caused major headaches for the global sports industry, with many fixtures suspended during the period of the report, online betting in the UK also managed to grow by an impressive 13.6% to £2.65 billion.
The vast majority of this number came from sportsbooks.
Dips were seen in betting exchange revenue (down 16%) and pool betting revenue.
Online Bingo
Online bingo, just like online casino games and online sports betting, kept many UK gamblers entertained during the dramatic COVID-19 year. Revenue from this sector grew to £189.1 million – a growth of 7.5%.
Other Highlights of Remote Gambling Report
- Revenue from remote gambling in the UK was highest in the period October 2020 to March 2021. In the final three months of last year, revenue reached £1.87 billion. The following three months raked in a similar amount.
- At the end of the reported period, operators counted £893.8 million in their players’ accounts.
- There were 32 million active account holders during the year.
Partial Numbers for UK Land-Based Gambling Sector
While the UKGC usually includes all gambling sectors in its annual report, including the land-based casino and sports betting sectors, it was unable to do so this time around.
The authority said that the lockdowns had seriously impacted brick-and-mortar gambling, and it could not make accurate estimates about numbers.
Available Land-Based Numbers
- The number of licensed operators dropped by 5.4%, mainly because of the sharp decline in land-based gambling sectors.
- Non-remote betting licensees dropped by 7.8% in number.
- Gaming machine technical licensees dropped by 8.6%.
- Non-remote bingo licensees dropped by 9.2%.
- Number of gaming premises dropped 6.2% to 10,128.
- Betting operators provided 37% of sports betting integrity reports generated. 56% of the reports dealt with football, 18% with tennis and 15% with esports.
UK National Lottery Numbers
Data was provided for the National Lottery, which reported revenue from both its retail and online sales of £8.39 billion – a 6% increase.
In the first half of National Lottery operator, Camelot’s 2021-2022 financial year to the end of September 2021, lottery sales in the UK reached an all-time high.
