The latest UK gambling industry statistics from the Gambling Commission, published on 17 September 2026, put Great Britain’s gross gambling yield (GGY) at £17,455.7m for April 2025 to March 2026. That is 4.4% more than the year before. Online gambling now accounts for almost half of the total, while betting shops keep closing.
What does gross gambling yield (GGY) measure?
Gross gambling yield is the amount operators keep after paying out winnings. In simple terms it is stakes minus prizes, so it measures what customers lose rather than what they bet. For the National Lottery and society lotteries the Commission uses a comparable “retained” figure.
Gross gambling yield UK figures are the standard yardstick used by the Gambling Commission, HMRC and listed operators. It is much smaller than turnover: online operators alone took £152,337.6m in stakes in FY2025-26, yet kept £8,294.8m of it.
Gambling Commission statistics cover Great Britain, meaning England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland has its own licensing regime and is not included. The figures also leave out offshore casinos and other sites that take British customers without a GB licence.
The financial year runs from April to March. Figures marked P (provisional) for FY2025-26 can be revised in the next release, due in September 2027, and FY2024-25 figures have already been revised (R).
The headline: £17.5bn kept by the industry
Total GGY reached £17,455.7m in FY2025-26, up from £16,727.7m in FY2024-25. That works out at roughly £47.8m a day across the year, on our own calculation. Only GB-licensed operators are counted, so play at European online casinos licensed elsewhere is not part of the total.
That is the best measure of UK gambling market size 2026 readers will find in official data. Stripping out every kind of lottery leaves £13,154.9m. This is the figure most often quoted for the “gambling industry” in a narrower sense, covering betting, casinos, bingo, arcades and online play.
Quarterly figures were remarkably flat. The Commission reports £4,374.5m for April to June 2025, £4,269.5m for July to September, £4,437.7m for October to December and £4,374.0m for January to March 2026.
Key point: the 4.4% rise in total GGY is driven almost entirely by online casino games, while betting yield fell both online and in shops.
Online vs land-based gambling
Remote gambling, meaning online casino, betting and bingo, produced £8,294.8m in FY2025-26. That is 47.5% of all GGY and 6.9% more than the £7,755.9m of the previous year.
Land-based (non-remote) sectors produced £4,860.1m, or 27.8% of the total. The National Lottery added 19.9% and other lotteries 4.8%.
The scale of online play is also visible in accounts. Operators reported 25.7 million active online accounts, although one person can hold several accounts, so this is not a count of players. For player numbers, see our guide to how many people gamble in the UK.
Online gambling UK revenue has grown quickly in absolute terms too. The remote sector took £540m more than the year before, on our calculation, and online operators held £886.6m of customer money in accounts at the year end.
New sign-ups remain high, with 32.4 million new online account registrations in the year. That compares with 33.4 million in FY2024-25, so the flow of new accounts slowed slightly even as yield rose. Accounts held at casino sites based outside the UK are not included in these counts.
- Turnover: £152,337.6m staked online in FY2025-26, against £140,438.2m a year earlier.
- Kept by operators: £8,294.8m, around 5.4% of online stakes on our calculation.
- Active accounts: 25.7 million, up from 24.2 million.
Sector by sector: who earns what
Remote casino is now the single biggest sector at £5,699.4m, up 14.8% in a year. Online slots provide £4,789.6m of that, or 84% of remote casino yield, which we break down in our online slots statistics UK article.
The National Lottery is second at £3,465.2m. Remote betting (£2,447.6m) and betting shops (£2,422.2m) are almost level, and both fell.
| Sector | FY2024-25 (£m) | FY2025-26 (£m) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Remote casino | 4,963.6 | 5,699.4 | +14.8% |
| National Lottery | 3,370.4 | 3,465.2 | +2.8% |
| Remote betting | 2,620.9 | 2,447.6 | −6.6% |
| Betting shops (non-remote betting) | 2,505.8 | 2,422.2 | −3.3% |
| Land-based casinos | 930.4 | 934.0 | +0.4% |
| Society and local lotteries | 792.2 | 835.6 | +5.5% |
| Arcades (AGCs and FECs) | 722.8 | 800.1 | +10.7% |
| Bingo halls | 650.2 | 703.8 | +8.2% |
| Remote bingo | 171.4 | 147.8 | −13.8% |
| Total | 16,727.7 | 17,455.7 | +4.4% |
Changes are our calculation from the Commission’s rounded figures. The Commission does not explain the drivers of each movement, so treat any single-cause story with caution.
Land-based casinos were almost unchanged at £934.0m, a rise of just 0.4%. With 136 venues, they remain a small part of the market compared with their online equivalents, which earn about six times as much.
Betting is now split almost evenly between shops and online accounts. Shop closures have not simply pushed betting yield online, because remote betting also fell in FY2025-26.
Online bingo is the clear loser, down 13.8%. Land-based bingo and arcades, by contrast, grew faster than the market as a whole.
Where the lottery money goes
Lotteries work differently from commercial gambling because a fixed share of sales must go to good causes. That is why the National Lottery and society lotteries appear separately in Gambling Commission statistics.
National Lottery ticket sales were £7,935.0m in FY2025-26, and £1,688.7m was raised for good causes. That is about 21% of sales, on our calculation.
Society lotteries, run by charities, hospices and sports clubs, sold £1,171.2m of tickets and returned £498.5m to good causes. Their GGY rose 5.5% to £835.6m.
National Lottery, FY2025-26
- Sales £7,935.0m
- Good causes £1,688.7m
- GGY £3,465.2m
Society lotteries, FY2025-26
- Sales £1,171.2m
- Good causes £498.5m
- GGY £835.6m
Premises and gaming machines
At 31 March 2026 there were 8,081 licensed gambling premises in Great Britain, down 159 (1.9%) in a year. Betting shops account for most of them and most of the decline.
There were 191,804 gaming machines across land-based venues at the end of the year. Together they generated £2,696.9m of GGY, with £1,196.2m (44.4%) of that coming from machines in betting shops.
The number of licensed operators also edged down, from 2,179 to 2,154. A single operator can hold licences for several activities and many premises.
The long-term trend since 2008
In FY2008-09 the industry kept £8,364.9m, so GGY has grown 108.7% in nominal terms. These figures are not adjusted for inflation.
Growth was steady until the pandemic. GGY fell 10.7% between FY2019-20 (£14,187.2m) and FY2020-21 (£12,669.6m), when shops, casinos and bingo halls were closed for long periods.
| Financial year | Total GGY (£m) |
|---|---|
| FY2008-09 | 8,364.9 |
| FY2014-15 | 11,313.8 |
| FY2019-20 | 14,187.2 |
| FY2020-21 | 12,669.6 |
| FY2021-22 | 14,152.9 |
| FY2022-23 | 15,126.7 |
| FY2023-24 | 15,571.1 |
| FY2024-25 (R) | 16,727.7 |
| FY2025-26 (P) | 17,455.7 |
The recovery was complete by FY2022-23 and the market has set a new record every year since. Over the 17 years, online play went from a niche to the largest part of the market.
The Commission changed how it collects some data over this period. Even so, the data do not show how much of the growth is price inflation rather than more gambling. Activity at casinos outside GamStop, the self-exclusion scheme every GB-licensed online operator must join, is not captured at any point in the series.
What changes next: taxes and regulation
The FY2025-26 figures cover the last full year before a major tax change. Remote Gaming Duty on online casino and slots rose from 21% to 40% of profits on 1 April 2026, and a new 25% rate of General Betting Duty on most remote bets is due from April 2027.
Online slots were also subject to new stake limits during 2025. Both changes will show up in future releases, and our guide to UK gambling tax explains how much each duty raises.
Operators have said publicly that they expect to offset part of the higher duty bill. Entain, for example, told investors in November 2025 that it expected to mitigate about 25% of the annualised impact. How much of the rest reaches customers will only become clear from future data.
- Next industry release: the Gambling Commission plans the next annual statistics for September 2027.
- Quarterly operator data: published in between and covering a large sample of online operators.
- HMRC receipts: monthly duty tables will show the first full year at the new rates.
For a view of how gambling differs north of the border, read our analysis of gambling in Scotland.
FAQ about UK gambling industry statistics
Short answers to the questions readers ask most often about the industry figures.
How big is the UK gambling industry in 2026?
The latest Gambling Commission data, published in September 2026, show GGY of £17,455.7m for April 2025 to March 2026. Excluding lotteries, the figure is £13,154.9m.
Is online gambling bigger than land-based gambling?
Yes. Online gambling produced £8,294.8m, compared with £4,860.1m from betting shops, casinos, bingo halls and arcades combined.
Which gambling sector makes the most money?
Remote casino, at £5,699.4m. Most of it comes from online slots.
How many betting shops are left in Great Britain?
There were 5,617 betting shops at 31 March 2026, compared with 5,825 a year earlier.
Do these figures include Northern Ireland?
No. The Gambling Commission regulates Great Britain only, so Northern Ireland is not covered.
All figures come from official statistics. Shares, percentage changes and daily averages are our own calculations from the published values.
- Gambling Commission, Industry Statistics, April 2025 to March 2026 (xlsx, published 17 September 2026): GGY by sector, premises, machines, operators and remote turnover.
- HMRC, Gambling duty rates: Remote Gaming Duty at 40% from 1 April 2026.
- UK Parliament, Finance Act 2026, gambling duties: the 25% remote betting rate from April 2027.
- Entain plc, Annual Report 2025: guidance on mitigating higher UK gambling taxes.
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