UK gambling revenue from October 2018 to September 2019 dipped down over previous years due to a crackdown on wager sizes and the shuttering of retail shops. This downward trend was so significant that real growth in the online sector failed to help offset the losses. Sadly, this period of downward growth will likely be referred to as “the good old days” when the numbers for 2020 come out.
During the period reported on by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC), operators saw a dip of .5 percent from the previous reporting period of April 2018 to March 2019.
The big winner of this reporting period was online casino gambling, which clocked in a very solid £3.19 billion ($39.8 billion USD). That’s up a whopping 3.9 percent over the previous year. Elsewhere in the online gaming sector, online betting saw an increase of 4.3 percent and reported £2.12 billion ($2.65 billion USD) in revenue. Online bingo, that uniquely British online gaming phenomenon, brought in £198 million ($247.4 million USD) for an increase of 12.5 percent.
But none of that growth was enough to stay ahead of the impact of regulatory changes that are reshaping the world of land-based wagering in the UK. Specifically, the recent decision to reduce wager sizes on video betting terminals caused revenue from those shops to drop 13.8 percent. All told, they only brought in £2.81 billion ($3.51 billion USD) for the reporting period. That same decision is believed to be the main factor behind the redundancies of more than 4,000 betting shop workers.
Of course these numbers are going to seem positively golden when placed next to the reporting periods that include any part of the COVID-19 closures.