🎰 How did the UK Gambling Industry Change over the last decade?

#gambling #statistics #money #gamblingact2005 #casinoindustry
Ever wondered how much revenue is divided between gambling operators in the UK? Or how the legislative environment is affecting business growth in the government’s endless strife, to maximise player safety, and tax revenue at the same time? This chart represents the Gambling Industry GGY or Gross Gambling Yield by Sector, – which is the amount the operators are left with after paying out winnings – in the UK from 2009 to 2019 as presented in the latest Gambling Commission Industry Statistics.

Gambling has been part of British culture for centuries even though there has always been disagreement in the history of gambling between those arguing that it is a harmful activity that should be prohibited, and those who consider that people should be free to gamble in an open and regulated way.

The graphic represents the UK’s Gambling Industry GGY or Gross Gambling Yield by Sector, representing the amount operators are left with after paying out winnings, but before deducting costs of operation – from 2009 to 2019, as found in the Gambling Commission’s Industry Statistics.

The graphic begins when the effects of the 2005 Gambling Act had already matured into the gambling market, although, by 2009, the government had still not addressed the main failings of the 2005 Act. Specifically, the loophole which allowed unlicensed online operators who had all of their equipment offshore, to offer gambling services to UK players, and not be subject to local tax or regulatory supervision.

The gambling statistics show that the industry seems to undergo a linear annual evolution for the first part of the chart’s timeline with a sluggish start for bingo, arcade and remote sectors – except that the latter picked up speed in 2011. The best performing sectors being the National Lottery, with the betting industry alternating between first and second place.

The land-based casino industry sector populates the high-midfield area of the chart whilst Bingo occupies the low-central part of the chart. Remote betting (as regulated in the Gambling Act of 2005) advances at speed to close the gap with land-based Casinos throughout 2012 while arcades and other lotteries gravitate at the bottom two places, recording a GGY of over 1000% less than top the performing sectors in the chart.

However, the 2005 Act’s expansionary effects accelerated in 2013 when the online industry’s GGY overtook land-based casinos for the first time in 4 years.

We can now see a new entry showing on the graphic as a consequence of the enactment of the 2014 Act that required all remote gambling operators to possess a licence from the Gambling Commission to enable them to operate in Great Britain. As mentioned earlier, under the initial 2005 framework, overseas operators did not require a Gambling Commission’s licence, unless, any part of their “remote gambling equipment” was located in Great Britain.

The UK’s gambling history is one of accelerated expansion, fast technology adoption, but lagging regulatory innovation. In 1960, the unsuccessful Betting and Gaming Act aimed at legalising private gambling had the unwanted effect to also liberalise commercial gambling in places like restaurants and bars but at the same time turning the gambling business into a source of organised crime – due to the new gambling laws being so poorly drafted.

It was the 1968 Gaming Act that removed organised crime from gambling, and its long overdue successor in 2005 revamped the gambling industry by readying it for the 21st century albeit not without shortcomings as discussed earlier in this mini gambling documentary.

Nowadays, under the 2014 regulations the Remote gambling sector accounts for about 50% of all gambling in the UK with the majority of gamblers registered online with at least one operator although the average number of accounts being three per gambler.
It’s just data… Or is it? Make what you will of it.

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Meanwhile, gamble responsibly and remember, when the fun stops, STOP!