UK gambling regulator releases new activity report
Date: 2023-08-25 Author: Kirill Zagoruyko Categories: EVENTS
The UK's gambling regulator, the Gambling Commission, has released its latest annual report detailing its activities under its chairman Marcus Boyle and CEO Andrew Rhodes. The latest report covers the 2022/2023 financial year and reveals the strategic operating activities as well as statistics regarding the gambling sector in the country.
According to the latest report, around 23.6 million adults in the UK spent money on gambling between April 2022 and March 2023. Participation in any gambling activity in the last four weeks was 44%. On the other hand, the online gambling participation rate for the year to March 2023 was 26%, lower than the 27% in-person gambling participation.
Problem gambling remains low
The problem of gambling amid the changes made to the White Paper of the Gambling Law has been a topic that has been discussed many times since the beginning of the year. Now, according to the Commission's latest report, the problem gambling rate remains relatively low at 0.3%. The report estimates that between 160,000 and 340,000 adults are currently identified as problem gamblers based on the Gaming Addiction Severity Index (PGSI), and between 270,000 and 480,000 are at risk.
Rhodes and Boyle spoke about gambling problems and explained that the 0.3% gambling problem rate remains "statistically stable". However, the report acknowledges that despite the low incidence of gambling problems, hundreds of thousands of people experience the negative effects of gambling.
The gambling sector is recovering after COVID
A recently released Gambling Commission report showed that there were over 2,400 licensed gambling operators in the UK in 2022. It states that based on the latest figures, the country's gambling sector has "recovered from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic", with total gross gambling revenue (GGY) for the country's gambling sector reaching £14.1 billion (17. US$7 billion). ) for 2021-2022. This result compared to GGY for 2020-2021 increased by almost 11%.
More details revealed that the GGY for the UK online gambling and remote gambling sector for 2021-2022 will be £6.4bn ($8.1bn). While this represented a 6.2% decrease from April 2020 to March 2021, it showed a 12.4% increase from 2019-2020.
In its recent report, the gambling regulator revealed that it has taken action against 24 operators over the past year. Overall, the Commission has paid £60.1 million ($75.7 million) in sanctions such as fines as well as regulatory settlements. In particular, the gambling regulator imposed a record £19.2 million (US$23.67 million) sanction against William Hill, as well as a massive £17 million (US$21.4 million) fine against Entain.
Last year: demanding but successful
Commission CEO Rhodes and Chairman Boyle commented: “After an extremely challenging but successful year, we would like to end by thanking all members of the Commission for their professionalism and commitment to our strategic goals and ambitions, which has once again cemented our reputation as one of the most respected regulators in the world. and solidified our position as a great place to work.”
The duo acknowledged that these are the busiest years for the Commission amid major changes planned for the gambling sector with the revision of the Gambling Law. Finally, they stated that the gambling regulator and the sector continue to work together to ensure that gambling is fair and safe for consumers.
According to the latest report, around 23.6 million adults in the UK spent money on gambling between April 2022 and March 2023. Participation in any gambling activity in the last four weeks was 44%. On the other hand, the online gambling participation rate for the year to March 2023 was 26%, lower than the 27% in-person gambling participation.
Problem gambling remains low
The problem of gambling amid the changes made to the White Paper of the Gambling Law has been a topic that has been discussed many times since the beginning of the year. Now, according to the Commission's latest report, the problem gambling rate remains relatively low at 0.3%. The report estimates that between 160,000 and 340,000 adults are currently identified as problem gamblers based on the Gaming Addiction Severity Index (PGSI), and between 270,000 and 480,000 are at risk.
Rhodes and Boyle spoke about gambling problems and explained that the 0.3% gambling problem rate remains "statistically stable". However, the report acknowledges that despite the low incidence of gambling problems, hundreds of thousands of people experience the negative effects of gambling.
The gambling sector is recovering after COVID
A recently released Gambling Commission report showed that there were over 2,400 licensed gambling operators in the UK in 2022. It states that based on the latest figures, the country's gambling sector has "recovered from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic", with total gross gambling revenue (GGY) for the country's gambling sector reaching £14.1 billion (17. US$7 billion). ) for 2021-2022. This result compared to GGY for 2020-2021 increased by almost 11%.
More details revealed that the GGY for the UK online gambling and remote gambling sector for 2021-2022 will be £6.4bn ($8.1bn). While this represented a 6.2% decrease from April 2020 to March 2021, it showed a 12.4% increase from 2019-2020.
In its recent report, the gambling regulator revealed that it has taken action against 24 operators over the past year. Overall, the Commission has paid £60.1 million ($75.7 million) in sanctions such as fines as well as regulatory settlements. In particular, the gambling regulator imposed a record £19.2 million (US$23.67 million) sanction against William Hill, as well as a massive £17 million (US$21.4 million) fine against Entain.
Last year: demanding but successful
Commission CEO Rhodes and Chairman Boyle commented: “After an extremely challenging but successful year, we would like to end by thanking all members of the Commission for their professionalism and commitment to our strategic goals and ambitions, which has once again cemented our reputation as one of the most respected regulators in the world. and solidified our position as a great place to work.”
The duo acknowledged that these are the busiest years for the Commission amid major changes planned for the gambling sector with the revision of the Gambling Law. Finally, they stated that the gambling regulator and the sector continue to work together to ensure that gambling is fair and safe for consumers.
