Britain’s licensed gambling market grew again in the year to the end of March 2026, with online casino games having done most of the work. The Gambling Commission’s annual industry statistics, which were published on the 17th of September, put total Gross Gambling Yield at £17.5 billion. That figure, which measures what operators keep once winnings are paid out, is 4.4% higher than a year earlier.
Take lotteries out of the conversation and the market comes to £13.2 billion, which is up 4.7%. National Lottery ticket sales edged up 0.9% to £7.9 billion over the same period.
Slots Are Big Business
Remote casinos, betting and bingo together earned £8.3 billion, which amounts to a rise of 6.9%. Online casinos accounted for £5.7 billion of that after climbing 14.8%, with slots making up roughly £4.8 billion on their own following growth of around 15%, according to reports.
The rest of the online market went backwards, however. Remote Betting Yield dropped 6.6% to about £2.45 billion, even as turnover rose by roughly 4.5%, so bookmakers kept a smaller slice of a bigger pot. Online bingo fell 13.8% to £148 million.
A Shrinking High Street
philopenshaw – bigstockphoto.com
Land-based gambling crept up 1.1% to £4.9 billion, with sharp differences being seen between venues. Arcades and adult gaming centres took £800.1 million from machines, for example, which is up 10.7%, whilst bingo halls rose 8.2%. Betting Shop Yield went the other way, though, falling 3.3% to around £2.4 billion. Counting every type of venue, gaming machines generated £2.7 billion, which is a gain of 4.3%.
There are now 5,617 betting shops in Great Britain, which is 208 fewer than a year ago. That means that the count has now dropped in 12 reporting periods running, which is not great news for the betting sites, even if it could be considered good news for the high street. Licensed premises of all kinds total 8,081, down 2%, whilst the number of licensed operators slipped 1.1% to 2,154.
These figures stop just short of a major change in the world of gambling. Remote Gaming Duty went up from 21% to 40% of operators’ profits on the first of April 2026, so next year’s report will be the first to show how online casino firms have fared with the levy having almost doubled.