UKGC Publishes Data Showing How Gambling Behaviour Reacts to Current Environmental Factors in Britain

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has published further data showing how gambling behaviour is reacting to current environmental factors in Great Britain.

The data, sourced from operators, reflects the period between March 2020 and December 2022, inclusive, and covers online and in-person gambling covering Licensed Betting Operators (LBOs) found on Britain’s high streets.

This release compares Quarter 3 (Q3) of the financial year 2022 to 2023, with Q3 of 2021 to 2022, looking at how the market has changed in comparative periods over a year.

The latest operator data shows:

• online total Gross Gambling Yield (GGY) in Q3 (October to December) was £1.2 billion, a decrease of 2% from Q3 the previous year. The overall number of total bets and or spins increased 8% year-on-year, whilst the average monthly active accounts increased 13%
• slots GGY increased 2% to £582 million between Q3 2021 to 2022 and Q3 2022 to 2023. The number of spins increased by 8%, while the average monthly active accounts increased 13% to 3.7 million per month year-on-year for the quarter
• the number of online slots sessions lasting longer than an hour increased 11% year-on-year for Q3 to top 9 million for the first time in this dataset. The number of total sessions increased by 21% in the equivalent time period, with 6.5% of all sessions lasting in excess of one hour during Q3, the lowest percentage recorded since starting to collect data in March 2020. The average session length decreased 2 minutes to 17 minutes year-on-year
• the number of customer interactions in Q3 decreased by 10% to 2.9 million compared to the same period last year, with the majority remaining automated in nature. The number of direct interactions undertaken by operators in this dataset has increased by 32% year-on-year
• LBO GGY increased 5% to £560 million between Q3 2021 to 2022 and Q3 2022 to 2023, while the number of total bets and spins increased 2% to 3.4 billion.

“We continue to expect vigilance from operators as consumers are impacted in different ways by the current economic environment. Many people will feel vulnerable as they face further uncertainty about their personal or financial circumstances,” UKGC said.