UK gamblers lose £13.8bn in 2016

UK Gambling commission has confirmed that British gamblers lost a record breaking £13.8bn in the year ending September 2016, an increase 2.9% from the previous period’s figures.

In a report published today, the commission also revealed that £1.82bn was lost by gamblers on fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs), higher than previous totals and despite the number of machines in operation only increasing by 9%.

The fixed odds betting terminal has become something of a political hot potato in recent months, with both the Labour and Liberal Democrat political parties pledging to restrict maximum stake amounts as a way of addressing the increasing number of problem gamblers.

The findings precede the publication of a full scale government review into the UK gambling industry, expected within weeks.

According to figures obtained by the BBC, UK bookmakers made £333.4m profit in betting on football over the period .

Figures also confirmed that the remote gambling sector accounted for 32% of the overall gambling market in the UK with a gross gaming yield of £4.5bn in the period October 2015-September 2016.

Online casino games accounted for £2.4bn of the gross gaming yield, with over 66% of this income being generated through slots gaming.

National Lottery sales were £7.4bn for the period October 2015 to September 2016, representing a 3% decrease when compared to the prior period. The amount donated to good causes as a result of national lottery sales increased by 9% from the period April 2015 to March 2016.

Gross gaming yield from bingo games decreased from £688m to £682m, partly down to a 5.7% drop in the number of bingo halls operating in the UK.

The non-remote (.i.e. on premises) betting market grew slightly from £3.3bn to just over £3.4bn gross gaming yield during the reporting period.