A Decade of Gambling in the UK – the Statistics

It does not seem possible, but the turn of the millennium was 20 years ago now and we are entering the third decade of the 21^st century. Indeed, the “twenty-twenties” are finally upon us.

The gambling landscape in the UK has changed significantly over the past decade, with the creation of the United Kingdom Gambling Commission and the furore over Fixed-Odds Betting Terminals in real-world betting shops. Have these changes had much of an effect – monetary-wise – on the gambling yields of the UK gambling industry?

To work that out, here we take a look at UK gambling statistics over the past decade, as released by statistical information company Statista.

Overall Gross Gambling Yield – up £5,845.56 million (107.5%)

GGY Apr09-Mar10 £5,436.44 million – GGY Apr18-Mar19 £11,282 million

Not surprisingly, UK gambling statistics show an increase in overall yield – but what is surprising is that it has doubled over ten years, which is an average rise of 10%, year-on-year.

Given the current attitude towards gambling as held by politicians and most factions of the UK media you would expect that people are being left homeless in their hundreds on a daily basis because of ‘problem gambling’. The truth is that there has been only a less than 10% increase, year-on-year, in the amount of money being spent in the UK online casinos over the past decade, as these UK gambling statistics show.

Online Gambling Gross Yield – up £4,688.89 million (741.7%)

GGY Apr09-Mar10 £632.22 million – GGY Apr18-Mar19 £5,321.11 million

When it comes to UK gambling statistics the real success story is easy to ascertain. The amount spent on all forms of online gambling (sports betting, slots, casino games and bingo) has risen by over four and a half billion pounds over the past decade. That’s a staggering rise of over 700%.

Online gambling overtook real-world sports betting as the biggest earner in UK gambling in 2015. In that year the GGY of online gambling rose from just under £1,500 million to well over £4,000 million.

Between 2016 and 2018 it rose steadily, but in 2019 it actually suffered something of a dip, falling from £5,355 million to £5,321 million, a decrease of 6%.

Betting Gambling Gross Yield – up £442.03 million (15.7%)

GGY Apr09-Mar10 £2,811.36 million – GGY Apr18-Mar19 £3,253.39 million

Despite the massive increase in online betting, people still love to bet in the real world too. Betting at real-world betting shops has increased, but only marginally, and upon closer examination of these UK Gambling statistics we find these figures have actually remained steady since 2012.

Casino Gambling Gross Yield – up £308.1 million (41%)

GGY Apr09-Mar10 £751.13 million – GGY Apr18-Mar19 £1,059.23 million

More and more people are flocking to online casinos, but more and more people are flocking to real-world casinos too (perhaps the latter is linked to the former?). Over the past decade income from real-world casinos has risen by £300 million, which is a rise over 40%.

Bingo Gambling Gross Yield – up £49.85 million (7.9%)

GGY Apr09-Mar10 £627.22 million – GGY Apr18-Mar19 £677.04 million

Brits love their bingo, but as these new UK Gambling statistics show people are not exactly flocking to real-world bingo halls in their thousands in comparison to a decade ago. In fact, the amount of money generated by bingo over the past decade has remained fairly constant, with a rise of slightly less than 8%.

Lotteries Gambling Gross Yield – up £383.03 million (241.6%)

GGY Apr09-Mar10 £158.55 million – GGY Apr19-Mar19 £541.58 million

It could be you, but it probably won’t be. People in the UK are still dreaming of that mega-millions lottery win, and buying tickets and scratch-cards contributes over half a billion to UK gambling statistics each year. That’s a staggering rise of nearly 250% over the past decade.

Arcades Gambling Gross Yield – down £26.31 million (5.8%)

GGT Apr09-Mar10 £455.96 million – GGY Apr19-Mar19 £429.65 million

Not everyone is a winner when it comes to UK gambling and not every business sector is a winner when it comes to UK gambling statistics. The humble arcade niche has seen its gross yield fall over the past ten years, but admittedly only by around 6%.

Conclusion

Despite the howls of protest from some sections of the UK media and several MPs, people in the UK love to gamble and there’s no sign that that’s going to change any time soon. The Gambling industry contributes over £11 billion to the United Kingdom, and that’s a figure – as has been shown in this piece on UK gambling statistics – that has risen steadily since the start of the decade.

Perhaps what’s most interesting is that it’s more how we gamble than how much we spend that has changed the most over the past ten years, as that 741% increase in online gambling clearly shows.

BONUS READ: No More Wagering with Credit Cards in the UK