According to the Gambling Commission, Covid-19 continues to impact Britain’s gaming sector, which generated £1.2bn ($1.63bn) in GGY for the three months ended 31 December 2021, representing a 6% drop from the second quarter.
The data, it said, was taken from licensed betting operators (LBO) and covers both online and in-person gambling between March 2020 and December 2021.
For December, total online GGY amounted to £421m, while between Q2 and Q3, total bets/spins experienced a 4% increase, though the number of active accounts remained steady.
Slots GGY rose 1% to £568m between Q2 and Q3, while average playtime also increased during the third quarter, with the number of online slots sessions lasting longer than an hour up 8% to over 8.1 million.
The average session length for Q3 was 19 minutes, with approximately 7% of all sessions lasting more than one hour.
The number of spins, meanwhile, increased 3% to 18.2 billion, and active players climbed by 5% to 9.8 million.
Commenting on these figures, the Gambling Commission said: “We recognise that the country is now entering a different phase as we adjust to life after a series of restrictions.
“We continue to expect extra vigilance from operators as consumers are impacted in different ways by the circumstances brought on by the pandemic and the wider economic environment.
“Many people will still feel vulnerable as a result of the length of the pandemic period, further uncertainty about their personal or financial circumstances or readjusting budgets and time as life returns to normal with a wider set of finance drivers.”
