Total revenue down slightly

The United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC) has issued new revenue figures for the overall gambling sector in the region.

For the 12-month period spanning October 2018 through September 2019, gross gambling yield dropped 0.5%. Online gambling revenue also fell 1.8% year-on-year.

The gaming regulator cited the struggles of retail gambling facilities as the main reason for the decline

Total market revenue for the period was ￡14.26bn ($17.6bn), per the UKGC’s Thursday report. The gaming regulator cited the struggles of retail gambling facilities as the main reason for the decline.

Retail operations dropping

The number of operational gambling premises during the 12-month period contracted by 9.6%, finishing at 9,745 premises in total. A particular problem for betting shops was the slashing of the maximum allowable stake on fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) from ￡100 ($123) down to ￡2 ($2.46).

The revenue from Category B3 gaming machines tumbled 18.5% to ￡1.3bn ($1.6bn). Overall gaming machine yield was down 11.8% in total, to ￡2.5bn ($3.08bn). Land-based casino revenue fell by 0.6% to ￡1.05bn ($1.3bn). 

Online gambling revenues also sliding

Online gambling gross yield for the period was ￡5.51bn ($6.8bn), a year-on-year drop of 1.8%. Of the total, ￡3.19bn ($3.9bn) came from online casinos, ￡2.12bn ($2.6bn) was from sports betting, and ￡198.1m ($244m) was generated by bingo. 

The number of new accounts fell 5.6% to 31.5 million

By the end of September 2019, there were 30.2 million player accounts with the UK’s licensed operators, a 2.7% drop from March 31, 2019. The number of new accounts fell 5.6% to 31.5 million during the same period. 

There was a rise in national lottery sales, a 3.9% bump to ￡7.49bn ($9.2bn). Of this sum, ￡4.3bn ($5.3bn) was given back to players in the form of prize money. ￡1.58bn ($1.95bn) was given to various causes and ￡901.7m ($1.1bn) went to lottery duty. 

￡304.3m ($375m) was given to retailers as commission. Camelot, the lottery operator, ended up with ￡395.9m ($488m). Other forms of lotteries, both offline and online, combined for sales of ￡775.6m ($955m).