Perhaps, the gambling industry in the United Kingdom is one of the most popular sectors in the region. Having well-laid laws regulating gambling, the residents of the UK enjoy some of the enormous benefits of gambling without struggles.
Unlike most parts of the globe where the regulations and laws are not straightforward, in Great Britain, the rules are pretty easy to understand. Online gambling continues to escalate and take roots in most countries, but in the great kingdom, gambling seems to be doing pretty well.
What is the drive behind the UK gambling industry success?
One of the significant contributors to the success of online gambling in Great Britain is the Gambling Commission. The United Kingdom Gambling Commission has a direct effect on the gambling habits of the gamblers in the region. This region also happens to be one of the safest and well-regulated markets for all the gamblers.
The United Kingdom Gambling Commission
The United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGB) is responsible for the regulation and licensing of all the gambling activities in Great Britain, be it online or offline. Whenever a company is interested in the license for gambling, the UKGB is the body that is responsible for verifying them.
UKGB is also mandated with the task of ensuring that every licensed company or operator follows the given rules and regulations regarding gambling, consumer, and adverts strictly.
This commission ensures that all gambling enthusiasts are treated fairly and in an open way when doing their online and offline gambling. It is the body that also ensures that gambling is not the source of disorder in society.
The commission is also tasked with a duty of ensuring that no minor or other vulnerable parties engage in gambling. By doing all these, the United Kingdom Gambling Commission makes the gambling industry one of the safest industries in the region.
To make their activities and enforcement of gambling laws more effective, this commission works closely with other authoritative bodies, including the government. It is with these authorities they release gambling data and statistics annually and publish it on the government website.
Interesting statistics about gambling premises
According to the Gambling Act of 2005, the commission controls the gambling industry in the UK and report to the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport. Through their great efforts and enforcement of the laws, the betting industry in Great Britain has turned out to be a big business.
According to their annual report during March 2018 and March 2019, there were over 10,761 gambling premises across the United Kingdom run and used by the licensed operators. However, this is a 3.2% decrease compared to the ones that were operating in 2018, which were 11,115.
In addition to the above premises, other 51,541 premises were under the control of licensing authorities that permit gambling in the locations. This is quite a high number compared to most parts of the globe. That should explain why they have a high number of workforces, operators, and consequently, revenues.
There are premises used by those non-remote licensed operators. Here is their breakdown of the major activities that they are involved and the percentages they occupy:
- Casino – 1.4%
- Betting – 77.3%
- Arcades – 15.2%
- Bingo – 6.0%
Statistics on licensed operators
The United Kingdom Gambling Commission has also licensed multiple operators. The commission requires these operators to adhere to all set rules, laws, and regulations on gambling.
According to their annual report between March 2018 and March 2019, there were 2,690 licensed operators by March 2019. Nevertheless, this is a decline in the number of operators by 4.6%. As of March 2018, the number of operators was 2,819.
From these vast numbers of licensed operators in the annual report, 338 of them transversed across multiple sectors. Of the total number of licensed operators, some held remote and non-remote licenses.
These licensed operators conducted over 3,656 activities compared to one of the previous years, which was at 3,782. Of course, this was a slight decline of 3.4%. Here is a breakdown of the activities performed by various sectors and their percentages:
- Betting – 19.7%
- Large society lottery – 17.5%
- Remote Casino, Betting & Bingo – 17.1%
- Arcades – 15.2%
- Gaming Machine Technical – 13.8%
- Gambling Software – 8.6%
- Bingo – 4.9%
- Casino – 1.6%
From these operators, statistics showed that there were over 21 million active accounts in the 2016-2017 report. This high number of players made the UK one of the largest regulated gambling markets across the globe.
Statistics on workforce
Gambling in the UK is such a big business that requires a good number of the workforce for it to run smoothly. According to the annual report released by the United Kingdom Gambling Commission for March 2018 and March 2019, there were 102,782 people employed in various sectors.
Although this number is a decline from the previous figure, that was 108,820, and it is quite a high number of employees. March 2019 registered a 5.5% decline. Here is a breakdown of the percentage of the workforce in every sector:
- External Lottery Manager – 1%
- Gaming Machine Technical – 6%
- Remote Casino, Betting & Bingo – 10%
- Arcades – 10%
- Bingo – 11%
- Casino – 13%
- Betting – 49%
From the breakdown above, you can tell that the betting sector has the most significant number of employees in the gambling industry. Casinos are also taking a good number of workforce in this industry.
In 2016, the number of employees in this industry was ranging at 106,678.
Gross gambling yield (GGY) statistics
One of the best sectors in the United Kingdom that is bringing in good returns is the gambling industry. According to the annual report that was released by the UKGB in the financial year 2015-2016, the gross gambling yield in the UK gambling industry was 13.8 billion Euros.
This Gross Gambling Yield continued to escalate between 2016 and 2018. According to the report by the UKGB of the reporting period from April 2018 to March 2019, the GGY amounted to 14.4 billion Euros.
In remote casino
Remote Casino, Betting and Bingo had the highest amount of gross yield contributing to around 5.3 billion Euros. As compared to the previous report, remote casinos decreased by 34.2 million Euros, which is 0.6%.
The online casino still took the lead in this remote casino sector with 3.1 billion Euros, which was basically from the many slot games in the UK gambling world. Remote betting GGY totaled to 2.0 billion Euros coming from horse betting and football.
Non-remoting betting
Closely to the remote casinos was the non-remote betting, which showed a lot of stability in the year. It had a GGY of 3.2 billion Euros. This yield was mostly affected by the on-course, off-course, and pool betting. In the year, all on-course related activities increased while the rest decreased. This increase compensated for the changes, making the sector stable.
National Lottery
The National Lottery ticket had an incredible sale. In the reporting year, it increased by 271.6m Euros. This sale was of great support to the overall GGY increasing it by 71.6m Euros. This increase resulted in the National Lottery sector, having a GGY of 3.1 billion Euros. These three sectors became the top three largest sectors based on GGY.
The sector with the smallest GGY market share
For years, Arcades has been one of the sectors with the smallest Gross Gambling Yield in the gambling industry. However, in this reporting year, 2018-2019, it was one of the industries that had an increase in its GGY.
Arcades had a GGY increase of 541.6 million Euros, which is equivalent to 6.6%. This figure happens to be the highest in history. One of the most significant contributors to Arcades increase was adult gaming centers.
This gaming had an increase of 3.2%, reporting 379.3 million Euros. However, there was a decline in the licensed family entertainment with 8% resulting in a GGY of 50.4 million Euros.
Here is an outline of various sectors and their percentage GGY:
- Remote Casino, Betting and Bingo – 37.1%
- Betting 22.7%
- National Lottery – 21.4%
- Casinos – 7.4%
- Bingo – 4.7%
- Large Society Lotteries – 3.8%
- Arcades – 3.0%
Although 14.4 billion Euros for that annual year may seem to be quite a good amount, it is a decline compared with the previous amount. It represents a marginal decrease of 0.3%, which is equivalent to 46.4 million Euros.
Machines gross gambling yield
Between the reporting year 2018-2019, the GGY of machines has increased virtually in all sectors. However, for betting and other sectors like family entertainment centers, their machine GGY has decreased. All machine categories except D and B2 had a visible decrease.
Despite the decrease of 517.4 million Euros, the B2 category was still one of the highest machine categories. B3 group was the second-highest, with an increase of 518.0 million Euros.
Conclusion
The growth of the gambling industry in the United Kingdom has dramatically been propelled by the excellent management of the United Kingdom Gambling Commission. In 2016, there were 25 million adults, which is around 45% of the entire UK population, which involves gambling.
Of these 25 million adults, 3 million gambled on football games while 15.5 million were involved in the lottery for only four weeks. Within the same span of 4 weeks, 9 million adults had done online gambling.
Although quite a considerable number of UK residents still have their hands in gambling, their personal experience, television, and ads have continually made people have diverse opinions on gambling. Undoubtedly, the gambling industry in the United Kingdom will continue being the favorite of many.
Please play responsibly. For more information and advice visit www.begambleaware.org
Leave a Comment