UKGC Report Shows Online Gambling Has Increased By 10 pct

The latest annual report released by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) shows that the online gambling industry in the UK has continued to go from strength to strength. The UKGC report showed a robust increase in the gross gambling yield (GGY) and market share of the online gambling industry.

The latest UKGC report covers the months of April 2016 to March 2017 and showed an overall increase in the Great Britain gambling revenue. Total GGY of the whole UK gambling industry was reported at £13.7 billion up 1.8 percent from April 2015-March 2016’s £13.6 billion.

The increase in GGY came despite the 3.9 percent decrease in the number of betting shops bringing it down to 8,502, a 1.4 percent decrease in bingo clubs bringing it down to 583 and a 5.1 percent decrease in licensed arcades bringing it to 1,750.

The number of casinos have increased by just one, totalling to 146 brick-and-mortar casinos in Great Britain. Gaming machines also increased in number, up 1.8 percent to 182,916 licensed machines. The UK’s online gambling industry has played a major role in contributing to the increase in GGY. The report found that GGY for the online gambling segment saw a 10.1 percent hike from £4.5 billion to £4.7 billion. Its share of the market has increased 1.5 percent, amounting to 34 percent of the whole gambling industry.

Many attribute the growth of the online gaming segment to the launch of no deposit bonus online casinos, where customers can start playing at minimal financial risk. The continued strengthening of cryptocurrency, which has also made its way into online poker and casinos, could also by symptomatic of this growth. Nearly 9 million adults were found to have gambled online in the last four weeks alone, which is just as many people who tuned in to popular reality TV show Britain’s Got Talent.

In a statement, Tim Miller, executive director of the UKGC, said

These latest figures show that the gambling market is continuing to grow, particularly in the online sector. However, with such growth comes a great responsibility for operators to prevent gambling-related harm to all consumers and the public.

As the online gambling market grows, the UKGC has noticed that young people are also taking to gambling. The report showed that individuals between 18 to 24 years old were found to be gambling because of adverts and posts they came across with on social media. There has also been an increase in underage gambling which the UKGC is looking to address.

Adrian Sterne

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