Online gambling boosts the British market to £17.5 billion, up 4.4%

The consumer-facing gambling industry in Britain generated a Gross Gambling Yield (GGY) of £17.5 billion between April 2025 and March 2026, a growth of 4.4% compared to the previous year.

This is clear from the annual industry statistics report published by the Gambling Commission. If all declared lotteries are excluded, the GGY reached £13.2 billion, up 4.7%.

The remote casino, betting and bingo segment was the main driver of growth. Its GGY rose to £8.3 billion, up 6.9% year-on-year.

For their part, the face-to-face sectors – arcades, betting, bingo and casinos – generated 4,900 million pounds, just 1.1% more than during the previous year.

The data thus confirms a much faster evolution of the online channel compared to the business developed in physical establishments.

Great Britain closed the year with 8,081 licensed gambling establishments, down 2%.

The decrease was even greater among bookmakers, whose number fell by 3.6%, to 5,617 premises.

The Gambling Commission's Director of Research and Policy, Ben Haden, has pointed out that these changes respond to a complex combination of factors and that they must be analysed using different sources of information.

Along with the annual report, the regulator has published statistics for the fourth quarter, from January to March 2026 and a new installment of the Gambling Survey for Great Britain.

The publication also incorporates an interactive Power BI dashboard and a historical series with data from the year ended March 2009.