Data published by the UK Gambling Commission has revealed that, between April 2015 and March 2016, online gambling brought in the biggest revenues within the industry.
The stats
The published paper describes the Gross Gambling Yield, or GGY, a measure of how much revenue went in to different parts of the industry. As this is a gross measure, it does not take profit and taxes into account, only how much money entered the industry by way of players.
During the aforementioned period, online gambling had a GGY of £4.5 billion. The National Lottery drew a GGY of £3.4 billion while retail bookmakers trailed behind something with £3.3 billion.
The UKGC document goes on to explain that £2.6 billion of the online gambling sector’s GGY was generated by online slot machine-style games. The rest - £1.8 billion — was drawn from online slots.
When it comes to the National Lottery, more went to charitable causes than last year, to the tune of a 7.2% increase, that’s £1.8 billion. A further £208 million were raised by large society lotteries for the same purpose.
UKGC Programme Director James Green said that the industry shift (and subsequent revenue breakthrough) could be linked to the creativity with which operators engage with consumers, using technology that is constantly evolving and that has become such a pervasive part of everyday life. It is that same approach that also leads to improved customer loyalty, resulting in players returning to online casinos in pursuit of entertainment.
Policy review
The data collected and published in this document is the result of a Call for Evidence issued by the UK government in October. The purpose of the campaign was to review the country’s gambling industry, a process undertaken every three years in an effort to remain up to date on developments. Operators licensed in the UK had until the 4th December to submit the requested information on their businesses.
The review aims to improve and update regulations pertaining to the industry and tackling specific regulatory issues. The government also aims to take a proactive approach to preventing and tackling gambling addiction, introducing tighter regulations to oblige operators to improve their addiction prevention measures.
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