The British Gambling Commission published figures revealing a considerable drop in B2 gaming machine (or fixed odds wagering terminals) income in the fiscal year concluding March 31, 2020. This was attributed to the maximum wager on these devices being lowered to £2 in April 2019.
This adjustment resulted in a minor decrease in overall gambling revenue (wagers placed minus payouts), which dipped by 0.6% year-over-year to £14.22 billion (€15.83 billion/$18.97 billion).
Brick-and-mortar gambling establishments were also shuttered for the final 11 days of the reporting period due to the COVID-19 outbreak, and the sporting event schedule was significantly curtailed due to the pandemic.
Online gambling, encompassing sports wagering, bingo, and casino gaming, was the primary revenue generator, producing £5.68 billion and expanding by 8.1%.
This channel’s growth was spurred by the robust performance of online sports betting, which witnessed revenue surge by 15.5% to £2.33 billion, although it remained the second largest vertical after casino, which saw revenue climb by 3.7% to £3.18 billion. Meanwhile, bingo revenue grew slightly, increasing by 0.5% to £176.8 million.
Shifting focus to land-based gambling, gaming machine revenue plummeted by 25.6% year-on-year to £2.09 billion, following the reduction of the maximum wager on B2 gaming machines from £100 to £2 in April 2019.
This led to a steep decline in machine revenue to £12.1 million, a decrease of 99.0%.
The decrease in income was partially balanced by expansion in other machine types, especially B3 machines, which experienced a 39.5% surge in GGY to £1.54 billion.
B1 machines witnessed a smaller rise, with a maximum wager of £5, and earnings climbed to £214.8 million, whereas B4, C, and D terminals all experienced a reduction in profits.
The reduction in B2 wagers resulted in a 26.4% drop in overall betting shop income to £2.4 billion, while the number of shops operating at the end of the year decreased by 7.7% to 7,681.
Bingo halls also reported a year-over-year decrease in earnings, down 5.7% to £636 million, while casino income fell by 4.0% to £1.02 billion. This signifies that arcades were the only land-based venue to report an increase in revenue for the year, with an 8.8% rise to £4.773 billion.
Meanwhile, the lottery industry saw growth in both the large society lottery and the National Lottery. Excluding the lottery run by Camelot, revenue increased by 13.3% to £6.116 billion, but the total revenue generated for good causes decreased by 10.7% to £3.668 billion.
On the contrary, the National Lottery saw sales of £7.9 billion, of which £5.45 billion was retail sales and £2.46 billion was online sales. This generated £3.4 billion in gross revenue, an increase of 10.4%.
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