Operator News
UK – Gambling Commission details land-based fall as COVID grips first half
By Phil - 31 May 2021
Revenue at land-based casinos in the UK was severely impacted by the COVID closures, generating just £67m in the first half of the year compared to £1.02bn for the full year from April 2019 March 2020. Licensed bookmakers were also massively affected generating £629.3m compared to £2.41bn for the previous full year.
The figures come from the UK Gambling Commission for the period from April to September 2020.
Last year the Gambling Commission only showed annual figures rather than a six-month analysis. Overall the Gambling Commission reported gross gambling yield (GGY) for the six months to September 2020 of £5.89bn, while GGY for April 2019 – September 2020 was £14.12bn. Online gaming generated £3.08bn in the six months, an increase 9.6 per cent year-on-year from £2.81bn during the same six months in 2019 with online casino accounting for £1.94bn, followed by sports betting with £1.04bn. Online bingo generated £98.1m compared to £92m. Land-based bingo brought in £575.2m.The National Lottery brought in £1.61bn, while other lotteries brought in £310.5m.
The Gambling Commission detailed that 15.3m new online gaming accounts were registered during the six months whilst the number of operators fell. Betting outlets were down 12.3 per cent at 6,735 betting premises, there were 1,390 adult gaming centres, falling 4.2 per cent and 179 family entertainment centres, a drop of 5.8 per cent and 131 casinos, a fall of 16 per cent and 601 bingo halls, a decrease of 6.3 per cent.
The number of land-based gaming machines dropped by 37.7 per cent from 186,832 between April 2019 and March 2020, to 116,333 between April and September 2020.
