Gambling Commission's Full-Year Stats Show £17.5bn GGY as Regulated Market Grows Despite Black Market Warnings
The Gambling Commission has published its Gambling Industry Statistics 2025/26 annual report, alongside the Q4 (January to March 2026) quarterly figures.
It offers the first complete financial year picture of the regulated Great Britain market since two stake limit changes bedded in: the £5 cap on online slots stakes for all adults from 9 April 2025, and the tighter £2 cap for 18 to 24 year olds from 21 May 2025.
The headline number is £17.5 billion, total gross gambling yield (GGY) across the industry for the financial year April 2025 to March 2026, up 4.4 percent on the previous year.
Strip out lotteries and that figure is £13.2 billion, up 4.7 percent.
Remote Casino, Betting and Bingo (RCBB) drove most of that growth, generating £8.3 billion GGY for the year, up 6.9 percent.
Online casino games alone brought in £5.7 billion, of which £4.8 billion came from slots, the clearest sign yet that the £5 and £2 stake caps introduced during the year haven't dented online casino spend at an aggregate level.
Remote betting added £2.4 billion, led by football (£1.2 billion) and horse racing (£769.3 million), staked at UK regulated betting sites, while remote bingo brought in £147.8 million.
Land based sectors (arcades, betting, bingo and casino) were smaller but still grew, up 1.1 percent to £4.9 billion. Gaming machines generated £2.7 billion, up 4.3 percent.
The number of licensed premises fell 2.0 percent to 8,081, and betting shops fell 3.6 percent to 5,617, with the high street continuing to shrink even as online spend rises.
There's a notable account activity signal buried in the release too: new account registrations with RCBB operators fell 3.0 percent to 32.4 million over the year, and total funds held in customer accounts dropped 13.9 percent to £886.6 million by the end of the last reporting quarter.
Fewer new sign ups and less money sitting in accounts, even as overall online GGY climbed, is worth watching as a possible early read on tighter affordability controls changing how people fund their play.
The National Lottery contributed £1.6 billion to good causes over the year, up 2.8 percent, from £7.9 billion in ticket sales, while large society lotteries contributed £498.5 million, also up 2.8 percent, from £1.2 billion in ticket sales.
The separate Q4 quarterly report, covering January to March 2026, shows the growth continuing quarter on quarter: £4.4 billion total GGY including lotteries (£3.4 billion excluding), RCBB at £2.2 billion, and remote casino at £1.5 billion, 68.3 percent of that RCBB total, slightly down on Q2's 69.9 percent share.
Betting shops fell to 5,617 nationally, with non remote betting GGY of £595 million, 50.4 percent of non remote turnover.
The timing is pointed.
The Betting and Gaming Council has been warning that illegal betting on the Premier League alone is on course to hit around £1bn a season, citing H2 Gambling Capital analysis forecasting the wider black market almost doubling from roughly £17bn to more than £33bn by 2028.
Today's figures show a regulated market that grew nearly 5 percent over the same period the BGC says the black market is expanding, a contrast both sides of the affordability and duty rise debate are likely to seize on ahead of the planned general betting duty rise from April 2027.
The Commission says it will publish an updated annual industry statistics release in Autumn 2027, covering April 2026 to March 2027, and will keep publishing core industry statistics quarterly alongside it.
The next quarterly report is due in December 2026, covering April to June 2026.
What's your read on the numbers?
Does record online GGY undercut the scale of the black market warnings, or do falling account registrations and account balances suggest affordability rules are already reshaping how people gamble?
Let us know in the comments.
And remember, compare today's regulated free bet offers while the black-market debate plays out
Source: Gambling Industry Statistics 2025/26 annual report
