Gambling Commission Publish Industry Statistics and Other Reports

The Gambling Commission has just published industry statistics covering the five-year period 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2013.The statistics show some interesting trends. The period is of course particularly interesting because it covers the 18 month period prior to the reform of Gambling Laws in Great Britain ( pre 2009) and the first four years following the wholesale changes.

It should be noted that the statistics for the most recent period (April 2012 to March 2013) are provisional. They also, for obvious reasons, do not include the most recent period up to end November this year.

Some of the key findings are:

• The British gambling industry, as regulated by the Commission, generated a gross gambling yield (GGY) of £6.3 billion between April 2012 and March 2013, a rise of over £0.4 billion (7%) compared to the period April 2011 to March 2012.
• The non-remote betting sector represents the largest market with a 51% share of GGY.
• Growth can be seen in betting, bingo, casino, remote (betting, bingo and casino) and lotteries sectors. Only the arcades sector experienced a decrease in GGY between the two most recent reporting periods.
• GGY for B2 machines in betting shops was over £1.5 billion, an increase of just under £100m (7%) on the figure for the previous reporting period despite a small decrease in the number of B2 machines.
• 107,791 people were employed across the industry, a drop of 2,125 from the previous reporting period.

We are grateful to BISL for distilling these figures from the report.

The full report can be read here at the following link (which also gives access to 2 other interesting reports on Licensing Authority statistics on permits issued etc and also a report on Casino “Drop and Win” data): 'Gambling Commission Statistics'.