Online gambling options accounted for 33% of the overall gross gambling yield reported for the period between April 2015 and March 2016, figures posted today by the UK Gambling Commission show.
The total amount of £4.5billion in online gross gambling yield was generated during the reviewed period. The UK gambling regulator pointed out that online gaming and sports betting has turned into the country’s largest gambling sector. In comparison, brick-and-mortar casinos generated £1 billion over the same period, high street bookmakers contributed £3.3 billion to the whole, and the National Lottery generated the amount of £3.4 billion.
A breakdown of the £4.5 billion generated by online gambling operators during the above-mentioned period shows that gross gambling yield from online casino games totaled £2.6 billion, with £1.8 billion coming from slots games alone; online sports betting operations contributed £1.6 billion; betting exchanges generated £152 million. In addition, gross gaming yield from bingo operations amounted to £153 million. Last but not least, pool betting contributed £26 million.
Commenting on today’s report, James Green, Program Director of the UK Gambling Commission, said that it could be seen from the results that the industry has taken a creative approach to engage gambling customers through online offering. The official further noted that as the sector is growing, operators will also have to ramp up their efforts to provide players and bettors with a safe online gambling environment.
It has become known earlier this year that UK’s gambling industry, both land-based and online, generated a total of £13.6 billion in gross gambling yield for the period between April 2015 and March 2016.
Today’s industry report comes amidst a Call for Evidence period launched by the UK government late in October as part of its triennial review of the country’s gambling industry. Operators with businesses in the country will have to provide officials with information about their operations until December 4. It is believed that the governmental review will result in the introduction of new regulations, particularly ones related to the way fixed-odds betting terminals in high street betting shops are managed.
With gambling often being associated with social ills and addictive behavior, the UK Gambling Commission has recently launched a series of initiatives to encourage operators to focus on implementing better measures for the prevention of customers from falling victims to gambling.
