The Gambling Commission has published its statistics on the current trends of gambling behaviour in Great Britain.
The data shows that online gross gambling yield (GGY) in Q4 (January to March 2023) stood at £1.3bn ($1.62bn) – representing a 5% increase on Q4 2022, with the overall number of bets rising by 9% and active accounts up 11%.
Real-event betting GGY during the Cheltenham Festival also increased year-on-year by 13%, raking in £555m. Meanwhile, total bets during the festival were also up 19%.
Slots – which are about to become a bigger part of the UK’s land-based casino scene, following the publication of the White Paper in May that recommended that the number of allowed slot machines in casinos rise from 20 to 80 – were up 2%, with a GGY of £552m for Q4 2022-23.
Active online slot sessions lasting longer than an hour rose to a GGY total of £8.8m, a 10% increase, making up 6.4% of all sessions – however, the average session length stayed at 17 minutes for the fourth consecutive quarter.
It is likely that once the White Paper review has been ratified and implemented across Britain’s gambling scene, slots will have a significantly bigger impact going forward as the limit increases for land-based casinos. Although the potential imposition of an online stake limit raises questions for the digital segment.
The changes in the review will impact all corners of the industry in the country, with the Gambling Commission handed further powers to hold companies to account for breaking the rules and regulations – meaning more interesting data is to come in the next few years.
