A third of UK gambling is via digital

Digital Rules! according to the latest figures from the UK Gambling Commission, which show that online gambling is the biggest revenue generator in the overall UK gambling industry, delivering 33 percent of all wagers processed.

The Gambling Commission numbers cover the period April 2015 to March 2016 and reveal that total digital Gross Gambling Yield (GGY) contributed GBP 4.5 billion to the industry total, overtaking the GBP3.4 billion in GGY delivered by the National Lottery. Retail bookmaking contributed GBP 3.3 billion, and terrestrial casinos GBP 1 billion.

Britain’s gambling industry as a whole generated a GGY of GBP 13.6 billion.

Drilling down into the digital statistics, GBP 2.6 billion came from online casino games, with online slot machine-style games alone contributing GBP 1.8 billion, whilst online sports betting accounted for GBP 1.6 billion GGY, betting exchanges GBP 152 million and pool betting delivered GBP 23 million.

Gambling Commission spokesman James Green commented in a statement Thursday:

“Our latest statistics show that with the growth in online gambling the industry is increasingly taking a creative approach to using technology to engage consumers. As the online sector grows operators will also need to demonstrate that they are taking an equally innovative approach to ensuring gambling is safe for all online consumers.”

Other interesting information in the report includes:

* 8,709 betting shops in Britain as of September 2016, down 1.8 percent y-o-y;

* The total number of gaming machines declined 0.4 percent y-o-y to 167,839;

* The number of bingo venues also declined by 4.3 percent to 575;

* The industry overall in the UK employs 104,896 people, a 1.5 percent y-o-y reduction in head count.