Great Britain’s licensed gambling market generated £17.5bn in gross gambling yield (GGY) during the 2025/26 financial year, with online casino growth providing the strongest contribution to the increase.
New Gambling Commission industry statistics covering April 2025 to March 2026 show total GGY rose 4.4% from the previous financial year. Excluding the National Lottery and other reported lotteries, the market produced £13.2bn, up 4.7%.
Remote casino, betting and bingo generated £8.3bn, an increase of 6.9%, while land-based sectors including betting shops, casinos, bingo halls and arcades produced £4.9bn, up 1.1%.
Online casino was the main growth engine. GGY from the segment increased 14.8% to approximately £5.7bn, with online slots accounting for £4.79bn after rising 15.5%. By contrast, online betting GGY fell 6.6% to £2.45bn, despite betting turnover increasing by around 4.5%. Football remained the largest online betting category at £1.17bn, ahead of horseracing at £769m. Online bingo GGY declined 13.8% to £148m.
The physical gambling estate continued to shrink. The Commission recorded 8,081 licensed premises, down 2%, while the number of betting shops fell 3.6% to 5,617. Casinos generated £934m in GGY, arcades reached £800.1m and land-based bingo produced £703.8m. Gaming machines across the market generated £2.7bn, 4.3% more than a year earlier.
There were 2,154 licensed gambling operators in the market at the end of March 2026, down 1.1% year-on-year, covering 3,097 licensed gambling activities.
Alongside its industry figures, the Commission released the latest Gambling Survey for Great Britain data. Its January-to-May 2026 wave, based on 5,277 adults, found that 49% had gambled during the previous four weeks. That rate fell to 28% when people who had only played lottery draws were removed.
Online participation stood at 39%, or 16% excluding lottery-only players. Men reported higher overall participation than women, at 53% versus 44%, while betting participation showed a particularly large gap of 16% among men and 4% among women.
The regulator cautions that GSGB figures should not be directly compared with older gambling surveys because of methodological changes. The survey programme uses a new baseline introduced in 2023, while the industry statistics are based separately on regulatory returns submitted by licensed operators.