UK gambling GGY hits £17.5bn as casino grows and betting falls

Online casino added more to the market than the industry grew overall, while betting revenue fell on both channels.

The Gambling Commission published its annual industry statistics for the financial year April 2025 to March 2026 on 17 September 2026. Casino revenue rose on both channels. Betting revenue fell on both.

Where the money sits

Industry GGY came to £17,456 million for the year, up from £16,728 million, according to the Commission’s interactive dashboard. 

• Remote casino is now the largest single sector at 32.7% of the total. 
• The National Lottery follows at 19.9%. 
• Remote betting accounts for 14.0% and non-remote betting for 13.9%.

Online betting revenue fell 6.6%

Remote betting GGY was £2,448 million, down 6.6% from £2,621 million the year before. Football generated £1,165 million of that, down from £1,330 million. Horse racing was close to flat at £769 million, against £763 million a year earlier. 

Football made up 47.6% of remote betting GGY, and horses 31.4%.

Retail betting went the same way. Non-remote betting GGY fell 3.3% to £2.4 billion. Machine revenue in betting shops slipped 0.9% to £1.2 billion and represented 49.4% of the sector total. 

Casino grew on both channels 

Remote casino GGY rose 14.8% to £5,699 million. Slots accounted for 84.0% of that, at £4,790 million, up from £4,148 million. 

Roulette was the next largest category at 6.9%, or £395 million. The remote casino increase of £735 million was larger than the £728 million by which the whole industry grew.

The non-remote casino sector also grew, though only just. GGY rose £3.6 million, or 0.4%, to £933.9 million.

Ben Haden, director of research and policy at the Gambling Commission, said in the regulator’s statement accompanying the release that the figures need to be read alongside other sources:

‘The market shifts that we see in industry data trends, and this year is no different, are complex and will be down to a mix of factors that need more than one source to unpick. I welcome our capacity to publish industry data alongside the Gambling Survey for Great Britain to encourage and assist in the consideration of key questions from these different perspectives.‘

The report was published together with the Q4 quarterly statistics and the latest wave of the Gambling Survey for Great Britain.

Betting shops fall for a 12th straight period

There were 5,617 betting shops in Great Britain at the end of the financial year, a decrease of 208 on March 2025. That is a 3.6% fall, and the 12th consecutive reporting period in which the number has declined. 

Total licensed premises stood at 8,081, down 2.0%. Betting shops made up 69.5% of the estate on 31 March 2026, with adult gaming centres next at 17.9%.

That decline predates the current wave of closures. This year, at least five large operators, Evoke, Entain, Betfred, Flutter, and bet365, have announced shop closures or job cuts. The Betting and Gaming Council counts 540 announced closures and around 4,500 job losses since the Autumn Budget on 26 November 2025. Most fall into the next reporting year. 

Land-based revenue still rose

GGY across the land-based sectors, covering arcades, betting, bingo, and casino, reached £4.9 billion, a 1.1% increase. 

Arcades grew fastest, up 10.7% to £800.1 million. Adult gaming centres accounted for £761.4 million of that, an 11.3% rise, while family entertainment centres fell 0.5% to £38.6 million. 

The Commission notes that this data does not include family entertainment centres operating under a local authority permit.

Non-remote bingo GGY rose 8.2% to £703.8 million.

Accounts, operators, and what comes next

New account registrations with remote operators fell 3.0% to 32.4 million. Active accounts stood at 25.7 million at the end of the last reporting quarter, and funds held in customer accounts were £886.6 million, a 13.9% decrease.

There were 2,154 gambling operators in the market at 31 March 2026, down 1.1%. Between them, they hold 3,097 licensed gambling activities, the separate permissions covering betting, bingo, and casino, up 0.4%. 

The statistics landed on the same day the House of Lords Liaison Committee called for a comprehensive ban on gambling advertising. 

The next annual industry statistics, covering April 2026 to March 2027, are due in autumn 2027.

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