Brit gambling business now worth GBP 5.8 billion annually

The UK Gambling Commission has published industry statistics for the year covering 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2012, comparing the data with that from April 2009 to March 2012.

Key findings in this latest edition show:

* The British gambling industry generated a gross gambling yield (GGY) of GBP 5.8 billion, a rise of GBP 0.2 billion compared to the previous year.

* The non-remote betting sector (betting shops, racecourses etc) represents the largest market with a 52 percent share.

* The lotteries sector has seen the largest increase in GGY, up 36 percent to GBP 227.8 million.

* Most British consumer remote gambling activity is on overseas regulated sites with a GGY estimated at GBP 20.1 billion.

* The non-remote casino sector has the second largest chunk of the market at 15 percent, with the UK-regulated portion of the remote gaming market claiming 12 percent. However, the Commission notes that most British consumer remote gambling activity is on regulated overseas sites.

* The lotteries sector has seen the largest increase in GGY from GBP 168.8 million in 2010/11 to GBP 227.3 million 2011/12, an increase of 36 percent.

H2 Gambling Capital estimates that global remote gambling GGY (excluding telephone betting) was GBP 20.1 billion during 2011, which represents 10 percent growth on the previous year.

UK consumer GGY (includes GGY generated with operators regulated overseas), which includes telephone betting, is estimated to have grown 5 percent between 2010 and 2011 to reach GBP 2 billion. Remote gambling GGY licenced in Great Britain accounts for 4 percent of the global remote GGY.

The overall turnover figures for the UK remote sector increased by 13 percent between 2010/11 and 2011/12. The remote casino sector has experienced the greatest increase during this period, growing from GBP 333.05 million in 2010/11 to GBP 487.91 million in 2011/12, an increase of 46 percent.

However, the Commission notes that despite this increase the Gambling Commission-regulated remote casino sector continues to make up only a very small proportion of the global market with just 26 remote casino operators, and that the casino market it regulates has not yet returned to the size it was in 2009/10… prior to larger operators moving offshore in search of more tax-friendly jurisdictions.

Gambling prevalence survey results show that in the year to March 2012, 58.1 percent of respondents said they had participated in at least one form of gambling in the previous four weeks. This figure compares with 56.2 percent in the year to March 2011, and 54.7 percent in the year to March 2010.

As in previous studies, the most popular gambling activity was National Lottery tickets (48 percent of respondents), followed by National Lottery scratchcards (13 percent) and tickets for society or other good cause lotteries (10.6 percent).

For remote gambling, 12.2 percent of respondents said they had participated in at least one form of remote gambling in the previous four weeks. Around half of these had participated only in National Lottery products.

This figure compares with 11.2 percent in the year to March 2011, and 10.7 percent in the year to March 2010, maintaining a low level of increase in activity.

The researchers point out that the increase is a consequence of increased online participation in the National Lottery. If those only playing National Lottery products remotely are excluded, only 5.6 percent of respondents had participated in remote gambling in the year to September 2011, compared with 5.9 percent in the year to March 2011 and 5.7 percent in the year to March 2010.

The full report can be viewed at:

http://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/gh-about_us/annual_report_and_accounts.aspx