UK operators generated a gross gambling yield (GGY) of £17.5bn in the fiscal year April 2025 to March 2026, up 4.4% year on year (YoY), according to the latest statistics released by the Gambling Commission.
Online gambling accounted for £8.3bn of total GGY, up 7% YoY, comprised of £5.7bn from online casino games and £4.8bn from slot games.
GGY from online sports betting amounted to £2.4bn, with the vast majority coming from football betting at £1.2bn.
Horseracing added a further £769.3m, while online bingo came to £147.8m.
Lotteries GGY was £4.3bn.
The regulator also noted a 3% decrease, to 32.4 million, in the number of new account registrations during the fiscal year.
However, the number of active accounts increased YoY, rising 6.2% to 25.7 million by the end of the last reporting quarter.
Looking at land-based statistics, GGR from non-remote betting facilities amounted to £4.9bn, up 1.1% YoY.
GGY from land-based sports betting totalled £2.4bn, down 3.3% YoY, while non-remote casino betting rose 0.4% to £933.9m.
National Lottery ticket sales generated £7.9bn for the reporting period, up 0.9%, with £4.5bn returned to customers in prizes and £1.7bn donated to charitable causes.
The number of gambling operators in the market decreased 1.1% YoY to 2,154 as of 31 March 2026. Notably, this was before remote gaming duty (RGD) in the UK increased from 21% to 40% from 1 April.
The total number of retail betting shops recorded by the GC came to 5,617, a 3.6% YoY decrease, while the number of licensed gambling premises in Great Britain fell 2% to 8,081.
Since the tax hike came into effect in April, several operators including Flutter, bet365, evoke, Betfred and Entain have announced either job losses or shop closures to mitigate the impact of the increased RGD.
Media reports from earlier this month claimed the Treasury is contemplating an increase in machine games duty as part of its Autumn Budget released in October.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has also committed to scrapping the ‘aim to permit’ rule, which prevents local councils from stopping the opening of new betting shops.
On the fiscal year statistics, Ben Haden, director of research and policy at the GC, said: “The market shifts that we see in industry data trends, and this year is no different, are complex and will be down to a mix of factors that need more than one source to unpick.
“I welcome our capacity to publish industry data alongside the Gambling Survey for Great Britain to encourage and assist in the consideration of key questions from these different perspectives.”
The post UK operators generate GGY of £17.5bn for fiscal year 2025-26 first appeared on EGR Intel.
New Gambling Commission figures show gains in the online sector, with the number of high street betting shops decreasing, prior to April’s tax hikes
The post UK operators generate GGY of £17.5bn for fiscal year 2025-26 first appeared on EGR Intel.