UK Gambling Industry Hits $15 Billion – Here’s What That Kind of Money Can Buy

It’s no secret that there’s a lot of money in gambling. But how much? Just over £15 billion, or £15,122,210,000 to be exact.

These are numbers released by the UK Gambling Commission and account for all licensed (!) gambling activities in the UK in the period of April 2022 to March 2023.

Here are the highlights of the gambling industry statistics report:

• Total GGY for the industry was £15.1 billion, showing a 6.8% increase compared to the previous year and a 6.6% increase compared to the pre-lockdown period of April 2019 to March 2020.
• The Remote Casino, Betting, and Bingo (RCBB) sector accrued £6.5 billion GGY, with online casino games dominating the sector.
• Non-remote betting GGY was £2.5 billion, with machines representing 50.1% of total GGY in this sector.
• The National Lottery ticket sales totalled £8.2 billion, with a primary contribution to good causes amounting to £1.7 billion.
• Large society lotteries ticket sales amounted to £943.9 million, with a primary contribution to good causes totalling £421.7 million.

Grasping how much money £15 billion is

When we pass a certain amount of money, it gets difficult for the human brain to grasp the significance of the numbers. So, to help with that, here are some of the things you could buy if you had £15 billion in your mattress.

⚽ All the clubs in the Premier League

The combined value of all the clubs in Premier currently stands at £11.09 billion, meaning you’d have around £4 billion to spare. Maybe spend it on some better players for the lower half of the table?

🏎️ 375,000 Tesla Model 3s

The entry-level Tesla Model 3 is currently priced at £40,000, meaning you’d afford 375,000 of them! If you splurge on the top-of-the-line Model X Plaid, which costs £115,000, you’d only afford around 130,000 cars.

🎁 Give £223 to every person in the UK

With a population of 67 million people, you could gift £223 to every single person in the UK!

🏥 Run the NHS for about a month

The 2022/2023 budget for the NHS is around 180 billion, but you could run it for about a month before throwing in the towel!

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15 billion is equivalent to:

I had so much fun putting this together, so I decided to compare some more numbers.

🇦🇱 The GDP of Albania

The 2022 GDP nominal of Albania was $18,882,095,518 (Source: World Bank) which converts to £15,168,742,613.

🌝 31,400 trips to the moon and back

The moon is 238,855 miles away from Earth. A round trip would then be 477,710 miles, which gives us 31,400 trips with 15 billion miles.

☀️ 81 trips to the sun and back

The sun is 93 million miles away from Earth. A round trip would then be 186 million miles, which gives us 81 trips with 15 billion miles.

💰 The net worth of Jim Ratcliffe

According to Forbes, the billionaire’s net worth is 16.1 billion USD (2024).

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Where is all this money coming from?

We can definitely conclude that the UK gambling industry has made an incomprehensible amount of money. But how was this money made?

It’s no surprise that online (remote) businesses make up a large chunk of the gambling yield. If we combine online casinos and online betting, these sectors make up almost half of the total GGY, at 44%. In total, the Remote Casino, Betting, and Bingo (RCBB) sector accrued £6.5 billion GGY.

But brick-and-mortar betting shops and games are still popular, and the National Lottery ticket sales totalled £8.2 billion. This resulted in a primary contribution to good causes amounting to £1.7 billion. 

Large society lottery ticket sales also amounted to a primary contribution to good causes totalling £421.7 million. So while the betting businesses clearly are the big winners here, there are also some positive outcomes for the community with these massive amounts.

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Full summary of the report

• Total Gross Gambling Yield (GGY) for the Great Britain gambling industry from April 2022 to March 2023 was £15.1 billion, indicating a 6.8% increase compared to the previous year and a 6.6% increase compared to the pre-lockdown period of April 2019 to March 2020.
• Excluding reported lotteries, the GGY for the gambling industry was £10.9 billion during the same period, showing a 9.3% increase compared to the previous year and a 7.6% increase compared to the pre-lockdown period.
• The total number of premises in Great Britain decreased by 2.2% compared to the previous year and by 18.1% compared to the pre-lockdown period.
• The total number of betting shops decreased by 3.9% compared to the previous year and by 22.0% compared to the pre-lockdown period.
• The total GGY for the Remote Casino, Betting, and Bingo sector was £6.5 billion, with increases of 2.8% compared to the previous year and 13.3% compared to the pre-lockdown period.
• The GGY for Land-based Sectors (Arcades, Betting, Bingo, and Casino) was £4.5 billion, showing a 20.6% increase compared to the previous year and a 0.2% increase compared to the pre-lockdown period.
• The GGY for gaming machines in Great Britain was £2.4 billion, indicating a 23.0% increase compared to the previous year and a 17.9% increase compared to the pre-lockdown period.
• The Primary Contributions to good causes from The National Lottery was £1.7 billion, with a 0.4% decrease compared to the previous year and a 3.0% increase compared to the pre-lockdown period.
• Contributions to good causes from large society lotteries totalled £421.7 million, showing a 1.0% increase compared to the previous year and a 14.6% increase compared to the pre-lockdown period.
• As of March 31, 2023, there were 2,343 gambling operators in the market, indicating a 3.0% decrease compared to the previous year and a 9.2% decrease compared to the pre-lockdown period.
• Additionally, there were 3,229 licensed gambling activities as of March 31, 2023, showing a 3.2% decrease compared to the previous year and an 8.6% decrease compared to the pre-lockdown period.

Source: UKGC