Britain’s gambling market looks flat across 2025-26 if you only read the annual total, but the quarters tell a busier story. These UK gambling quarterly statistics from the Gambling Commission show online casino yield rising every quarter, remote betting swinging with sports results and the National Lottery ending the year well below where it started. This 2026 guide walks through each quarter from April 2025 to March 2026.
Quarter by quarter: the 2025-26 picture
The Gambling Commission quarterly report published in September 2026 covers the financial year April 2025 to March 2026. Gross gambling yield (GGY), the amount operators keep after paying out winnings, totalled £17,455.7m across the four quarters, with the final quarter still provisional.
Quarterly totals barely moved: £4,374.5m in April-June 2025, £4,269.5m in July-September, £4,437.7m in October-December and £4,374.0m in January-March 2026. Underneath, the mix shifted noticeably towards online gambling.
| GGY (£m) | Apr-Jun 2025 | Jul-Sep 2025 | Oct-Dec 2025 | Jan-Mar 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Remote casino | 1,349.0 | 1,388.9 | 1,472.9 | 1,488.7 |
| Remote betting | 631.4 | 566.6 | 597.4 | 652.1 |
| National Lottery | 926.2 | 843.5 | 892.9 | 802.6 |
| Betting (shops) | 622.4 | 591.8 | 613.3 | 594.8 |
| Land-based casinos | 234.7 | 247.5 | 238.9 | 212.9 |
| Arcades (AGCs) | 189.3 | 192.5 | 192.8 | 187.0 |
| Bingo halls | 169.8 | 180.8 | 173.0 | 180.2 |
| All gambling | 4,374.5 | 4,269.5 | 4,437.7 | 4,374.0 |
Online activity (remote casino, betting and bingo) made up 49.8% of all GGY in January-March 2026, up from 46.1% in April-June 2025 (our calculations). The full-year view is in our UK gambling industry statistics guide.
Online casino GGY quarter after quarter
Remote casino is the one line that rose in every quarter of 2025-26. Online casino GGY per quarter went from £1,349.0m to £1,388.9m, then £1,472.9m and £1,488.7m, a rise of 10.4% between the first and last quarter (our calculation).
Compared with the same quarters a year earlier, growth ran at 16.3%, 13.6%, 12.7% and 16.8%. Across the full year remote casino GGY reached £5,699.4m, up 14.8% on £4,963.6m in 2024-25 (our calculations).
Online casino turnover was £32,138.3m in January-March 2026 and operators kept 4.6% of it as GGY, slightly more than the 4.4% retained in April-June 2025. Active online accounts stood at 25.7m at the end of the year; our online gambling accounts UK analysis explains how that count works.
These figures only include operators holding a Commission licence. Spending at offshore casinos serving British players without a licence is not reported to the regulator and cannot be measured from this data.
Remote betting: the most volatile line
Online betting GGY depends on results as much as on demand, because bookmakers lose money when favourites win. Remote betting yield fell from £631.4m in April-June 2025 to £566.6m in July-September, recovered to £597.4m and finished at £652.1m in January-March 2026.
The year-on-year swings were large: -9.8%, +7.9%, -20.1% and +0.6% by quarter. For the full year remote betting GGY was £2,447.6m, down 6.6% on 2024-25, even though turnover in the final quarter reached £6,552.4m (our calculations).
Operators kept between 9.6% and 10.0% of online stakes in each quarter. The listed groups behind most of that betting are profiled in our guide to the biggest gambling companies UK.
Key point: Online casino grew in every quarter of 2025-26, while remote betting rose and fell with sporting results. By January-March 2026 remote casino yield was 2.3 times remote betting yield (our calculation).
National Lottery decline through the year
The National Lottery started 2025-26 strongly and then faded. Its GGY was £926.2m in April-June 2025, 13.8% higher than a year earlier, but fell to £802.6m in January-March 2026, 4.8% below the same quarter of 2025.
Ticket sales followed the same path, from £2,096.3m in the first quarter to £1,837.9m in the last, a fall of 12.3% (our calculation). Returns to good causes fell from £479.7m to £391.0m over the same quarters.
The quarterly report does not explain the National Lottery decline, and lottery sales are known to move with jackpot sizes and rollovers. For the full year the lottery still recorded £3,465.2m of GGY, 2.8% more than in 2024-25, so the pattern is a weaker second half rather than a weaker year.
AGCs, betting shops, casinos and bingo halls
Land-based gambling GGY (excluding lotteries) slipped from £1,227.8m in April-June 2025 to £1,180.3m in January-March 2026, down 3.9% (our calculation). The trend differs by venue type.
Adult gaming centres (AGCs) held steady at between £187.0m and £192.8m a quarter, while their estate grew from 1,419 to 1,449 premises and machines rose from 77,918 to 80,665. Shop betting GGY fell 3.4% year on year in the final quarter, and betting premises dropped from 5,789 in June 2025 to 5,617 in March 2026, a trend covered in our betting shops UK article.
Bingo halls were the strongest land-based sector, with GGY up 11.2% on a year earlier in January-March 2026. Land-based casinos weakened late in the year: £212.9m in the final quarter was 9.3% below April-June 2025, while casino premises fell from 139 to 136.
What the quarterly figures do not cover
Every number in the Commission’s quarterly series comes from returns filed by licensed operators. Gambling with non-UK casino sites that do not hold a Great Britain licence is outside the data entirely.
The same applies to European online casinos licensed only in other countries. Rising online casino GGY therefore measures the regulated market, not total British spending on online gambling.
Quarterly figures are also revised. The first three quarters of 2025-26 are marked as revised and January-March 2026 is provisional, so small changes are possible in later releases.
What to watch in the next quarter
The next set of UK gambling quarterly statistics, due on 3 December 2026, will cover April-June 2026. That is the first quarter in which Remote Gaming Duty is charged at 40% instead of 21%, and the first to show whether operators changed their online casino offer in response.
It will also show whether the National Lottery stabilised and whether betting shop and casino closures continued. A further question is whether tighter rules push some players towards casinos outside GamStop, which the licensed statistics would not capture.
FAQ: UK gambling by quarter
Quick answers from the Gambling Commission quarterly report.
What is the Gambling Commission quarterly report?
It is an official statistics release showing GGY, turnover, premises and machines for each quarter of the financial year. The September 2026 edition covers April 2025 to March 2026.
How much online casino GGY was there per quarter?
Between £1,349.0m and £1,488.7m per quarter in 2025-26, rising each quarter. The annual total was £5,699.4m.
Did the National Lottery decline in 2025-26?
Its GGY fell from £926.2m in the first quarter to £802.6m in the last. Over the full year it was still 2.8% higher than 2024-25.
Which gambling sector is growing fastest?
Remote casino, up 14.8% over the year. Among venues, bingo halls grew 8.2% while betting shops fell 3.3%.
All figures cover Great Britain and licensed operators only, for the financial year April 2025 to March 2026. The January-March 2026 quarter is provisional and earlier quarters are revised. Percentage changes, shares and margins are our calculations from the published figures.
- Gambling Commission, Quarterly industry statistics, Q4 2025-26 (xlsx), sheets 1, 2, 4, 6, 7 and 9.
- Gambling Commission, Industry statistics, April 2025 to March 2026 (xlsx), sheets 1, 3 and 10, for 2024-25 comparisons.
- HMRC, Gambling Duty rates, Remote Gaming Duty rate for 2026-27.
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