The Gambling Industry Uk
According to the statistics, in 2018, the gambling industry employed over 100 thousand employees across the United Kingdom. Most of these employees worked with the betting sector, casinos, and bingo. The Size of the UK Gambling Industry. The UK gambling sector currently generates around £15 billion in annual revenues and is growing rapidly at up to 8% a year. Of this total over a third (£5 billion +) is made from online gambling, with a rough split of 60% casino and 40% sports betting.
According to the latest stats published by the UK Gambling Commission, UK gamblers bet a massive £14.5 billion last year. Yes, you read that correctly — that’s billion, not million.
That figure includes the gross gaming revenue across multiple sectors, including both online and offline gambling. After reading the summary of this latest report, I began to wonder, “What type of gambling is most popular in the UK?”
I had an intuitive feeling that sports bettors would be the biggest group. However, I wasn’t so sure about which group bet the most money. So, I dug into the data, and here’s what I found regarding which type of gambling is most popular in the UK. This is a breakdown of gambling in the UK by the numbers.
Some Headline Findings
Before breaking the industry down section by section and finding out which type of British gambler bets the most, I dug into the infrastructure of the UK gambling industry. Here are some key stats.
- There are 8,423 betting shops across the UK. Brands like William Hill and Ladbrokes dominate the landscape in all four countries.
- There are 183,813 gaming machines in the UK. That includes fruit machines in pubs and any other type of gaming machine which requires a UKGC license to operate.
- There are 152 casinos in Britain. This includes big franchises like Genting, world-famous casinos like The Hippodrome, and small-time operators all over the country.
- There are 650 bingo halls all over the UK. That number is up 1.1% from the previous year despite the rise of online bingo.
- There are 1,639 licensed arcades in the UK. These even exist in places like Northern Ireland, where casinos are still illegal for now.
- In total, including all of the above, there are 2,757 operators licensed by the UK Gambling Commission.
Phew! That’s a lot of places to make a wager, whatever kind it may be. A quick calculation tells us that there’s one betting shop for every 7,832 people in the country. I suppose that likely equates to one in each town of any significant population, and lots clustered in major cities like London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, and Belfast. However, there’s only one casino per 434,472 people, and they’re virtually nonexistent outside of medium and large-sized cities.
All of these establishments provide 106,670 jobs for UK citizens. Newspapers often overlook this side of gambling when they report all the doom and gloom of gambling. It’s a mega-industry in this country, and to either cripple it or shut it down would be extremely foolish from an economic point of view.
After understanding this, I was feeling fairly good about my prediction regarding which type of gambling is most popular in the UK. I initially thought sports bettors made up the biggest sector. My logic told me that there couldn’t be this many betting shops unless the demand was there.
What Does the Money Say?
The first thing I’m certain of is that more and more money is migrating online. When you consider that the average age of a UK resident is 40 and that the number of UK gambling sites is increasing exponentially, it isn’t difficult to understand what direction this industry is heading.
I looked at the revenue by sector, and here’s what I found.
- Betting accounted for £8.42 billion in revenue and £1.37 billion in yield.
- Bingo generated £1.01 billion in revenue and 355.28 million in yield.
- There is no revenue figure for casinos, but the yield was £1.07 billion.
Of this, remote betting generated a total of £115,456 million. Here’s a quick breakdown of the sector-by-sector numbers.
- Remote betting generated £26.79 million.
- Remote bingo generated £1.54 million.
- Casino gaming generated £87.01 million.
- Pool betting brought in £99.48 million.
While it bugs me that I couldn’t find an exact revenue figure for casino gaming, it’s clear from this data that sports betting is indeed the biggest gambling sector in the UK. That’s true, at least when it comes to profits for operators and the number of locations to bet. However, there isn’t much in it. If I had to guess, I’d say that casino games generate more revenue, even if the profit is a little lower.
What did I learn about online gambling? It isn’t yet as big as I thought it was, and there’s still lots of room for growth. However, I’m sure the numbers are a lot bigger than this when gambling sites without UKGC licences are factored in.
Other Interesting Stats and Facts
While digging around in the UKGC’s data, I decided to let my curiosity take me wherever it wanted. Here are some other interesting facts I learned about gambling in the UK.
- The National Lottery generated £2.99 billion in profits and contributed £1.5 billion to good causes. This is more profit than the other three forms of gambling combined.
- In terms of the total number of machines across the UK, bingo is the winner. There are 74,692 bingo machines. There are 33,324 betting machines, and 3,305 machines offering casino games.
- Of the £8.42 billion generated by betting, only £257.52 million of that was on-course betting.
- Of the big-name betting shops, William Hill has the most premises. There are 2,282 William Hill betting shops in the UK. The runner-up is Ladbrokes with 1,849 betting shops.
- There are 846 roulette tables, 545 blackjack tables, and 172 baccarat tables in UK casinos. There are 3,783 electronic gaming machines.
Conclusion
When we consider all forms of UK gambling, the National Lottery is the biggest of the lot. It’s staggering to think that the lotto made more profits than all of the others combined. Then again, every newsagent and filling station in the country sells tickets, and it’s not even considered “gambling proper” by most people, so it’s much more socially acceptable.
When it comes to the three main “gambling proper” sectors, sports betting is the biggest of the lot. However, casino gaming isn’t far behind it in terms of profitability. While no exact revenue figures are available, I’m fairly sure that casino gaming generates more in terms of sheer cash.
Ultimately, UK gambling is massive, and while responsible operators are scaling back on TV ads, I predict that it won’t lead to any dramatic fall in revenue. The UK is gambling-crazy, and that’s a fact that will remain true no matter how the figures reported here change in the months and years to come!
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.n response to rapidly escalating numbers of coronavirus infections, Downing Street announced a national lockdown on 20 March, closing all entertainment venues from music halls to casinos. It was more than four months until the government allowed casinos to reopen their doors to the public with reduced capacity and social distancing guidelines in place on 15 August.
Now, as parts of the UK start to face new lockdown restrictions to bring a second wave under control, we can see the impact the first lockdown had on the industry across the UK.
Covid-19’s impact on gambling
As a result of the government’s national lockdown, all land-based gambling venues in the UK were closed on 20 March. In one fell swoop this decision wiped off 50% of the revenues (excluding lotteries) of the British gambling industry.
However, it was not all bad news for the industry. Online operators saw a significant uptick in trade, with sites such as BestCasino.co.uk seeing a dramatic rise in traffic as players moved online. Without any significant additional marketing spend, industry figures for March 2020 showed a 25% increase in online slots use, 38% in online poker use and 40% increase in virtual betting use.
The Gambling Industry Uk Companies
Detailed statistics that indicate the overall impact of the pandemic on the gambling industry will not be available to the public until midway through 2021 when companies accounts are published. Nonetheless, recent YouGov polling indicates a poor outlook for the sector over the next few months and Genting Casino’s announcement that they were planning to release 1,600 employees because of the pandemic suggests that land-based casinos face an increasingly uncertain future.
Different rules across the UK
A a number of casinos remain open to the public today, but with each nation imposing its own version of lockdown and English regions each on varying tiers, the situation remains uncertain.
England
The Westminster government finally took the decision to allow casinos in England to reopen on August 15th. Since then casinos in the country have been able to welcome in members of the public on the proviso that they implement a series of strict guidelines to staff and customers to limit the risk of transmission.
Over the summer when the transmission rates of the virus were low the majority of casinos in England were free to operate, albeit at a reduced capacity. However, earlier this month the government released plans for a three-tier system for England.
The system – medium, high and very high – is intended to tell people how severe the infection rate is in their local area. And with each tier comes increased restrictions on businesses and local populations.
At the time of writing Merseyside, South Yorkshire and Greater Manchester are all categorised as Tier 3 and as such have stringent lockdown laws that have forced casinos in these areas to once again shut their doors to the public.
The Gambling Industry Uk International
Warrington, Nottingham and large parts of North and East Yorkshire are expected to be placed into Tier 3 later this week. To find out what restrictions are in place in your area, check the latest government advice HERE.
Online Gambling Industry
Northern Ireland
For the first few months of the pandemic Stormont largely followed the advice from Westminster. However, as the virus progressed, Arlene Foster and Michell O’Neill began to distance themselves from the chaotic last minute changes coming from Downing Street.
Northern Irish gambling venues did reopen over the summer months, but as a result of rising infection rates, Stormont took the decision to impose a strict four-week national lockdown earlier this month. Recent news of NI hospitals reaching intensive care unit capacity casts into doubt any hopes of an easing of restrictions any time soon.
Scotland
Edinburgh’s response to the pandemic shares many similarities with that of Westminster, but Nicola Sturgeon has been keen to take a tougher stance and impose restrictions earlier to better limit the impact on the Scottish health service.
Earlier this month new temporary measures were implemented that saw casinos in Aryshire & Arran, Forth Valley, Greater Glasgow & Clyde, Lanarkshire and Lothian forced to close. The Betting and Gaming Council have called this imposition “a huge blow” to the industry but has said that it remains hopeful of an easing of restrictions in the coming weeks and months.
Wales
Of all four nation states within the UK, Wales has arguably taken the toughest stance on Covid-19 restrictions. The country’s four land-based casinos all reopened in August, but the Welsh government’s firebreak restrictions forced all four Welsh casinos to close on 23 October. At the time of writing there are no concrete proposals or plans that suggest when they will be able to reopen.