UK Gambling Operators Posted 2.2% Revenue Rise In Quarter 4 of 2025… Despite Tax Bombshell

The collective UK gambling industry recorded a gross gambling yield of £4.5 billion in the final quarter of 2025.

That represents a 2.27% increase on the same timeframe in 2024, with the rise made all the more impressive by the fact that the huge tax hikes imposed by the UK government – announced in November – were a sledgehammer blow in the middle of the quarter.

However, the tax increase wasn’t rolled out until April of this year, so perhaps the quarter two data for 2026 will reveal a less attractive picture.

On the Rise

One of the standout findings from the new data published by the UK Gambling Commission is the key role that online casino gaming continues to play in revenue generation.

Around 70% of all gross gambling yield (GGY) for the RCBB sector – Remote Casino, Betting and Bingo – was created by online slots and table games, with the total GGY generated amounting to £2.12 billion.

That partly explains why the government was so keen to increase Remote Gaming Duty from the previous mark of 21% to 40%, as of April 2026.

The revenue generated by the online sector was supplemented by the returns of land-based operators and non-remote betting, with the total GGY for the gambling industry – discounting lottery profits – reaching £3.3 billion.

There was less promising news in terms of the number of gambling premises on UK high streets. The total number of properties fell from 8,254 in September 2025 to 8,148 by December, with betting shops falling from 5,782 to 5,669 – a drop of nearly 2% in just three months.

Meanwhile, the number of gaming machines in Gambling Commission licensed premises defied the drops elsewhere to increase from 190,965 to 191,325.

And the amount paid by the National Lottery to charitable causes also rose, up from £402.9 million in quarter three to £415 million in Q4.

Crunching the Numbers

As well as publishing their latest quarterly statistics, the Gambling Commission has also revealed the results of its Gambling Survey for Great Britain.

The findings in Wave 4, which accounted for the period of September 2025 to January 2026, were derived from more than 5,000 respondents.

They revealed that gambling participation remained at broadly the same levels, with 47% of those surveyed confirming that they had gambled in some way during the timeframe studied.

When removing those that had played a lottery from the results, overall gambling participation fell to 26% - that was 1% lower than for the same period in 2024-25. The data confirms that 21% of respondents had played the lottery but not gambled on any other product, such as sports betting, bingo or casino games.

Nearly half of the men (49%) surveyed had gambled in some way, with 44% of women having placed a bet. The most active age group in the sector was 45-64, with 55% of all respondents in this bracket having gambled between September 2025 and January 2026.

That average age is bumped up largely due to lottery participation. With lotteries removed, the most active age group for sports betting and casino gaming is 35-44, with 32% having engaged in non-lottery gambling.

The most popular forms of gambling in the UK are lotteries and scratchcards, with just 8% of respondents engaging in sports betting in the four weeks leading up to the survey being taken.

However, that 8% is skewed when looking at gender differences, with 12% of men having placed a bet and just 4% of women.

And the reasons people gave for gambling? They ranged from ‘because it’s fun’ to ‘the chance to win big’.