The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) have published gambling figures for the January- March 2026 period - the fourth quarter of 2025/26. Overall, the quarter showed increases year-on-year (y-o-y), with March enjoying an especially healthy rebound across online casinos.
However, tax changes in April may see figures fall in future reports.
The Gambling Commission's market overview uses figures from the largest operators, accounting for approximately 70% of the total regulated market.
UKGC Q4 results
For the quarter January to March 2026, Gross Gambling Yield (GGY) for online gambling amounted to £1.55B - a 7% year-on-year increase. The biggest gains were seen at online slots, where GGY reached £772.9M, up 12% compared to the same quarter last year.
While the number of online spins was up 7% to 26.8 billion, this came from 4.8 million active accounts, which is up 6%.
Quarterly online real event betting was up 1% despite the number of bets decreasing 8% and active accounts falling 5%.
Offline betting did not fare as well in the quarter, with GGY down 5% year-on-year and total bets were also down 1%.
From 1 April, online operators will see their outgoings increase significantly. The government has raised remote gaming duty from 21% to 40%, leading to expectations that some of the country's biggest operators may leave the market altogether.
However, they can take heart from the last quarter's results, and especially from March's performance.
A strong March performance
March saw year-on-year increases for all verticals except poker.
Slot GGY rose from £250.5M to £262.6M as the number of spins increased, across the same period, from 8.3 billion to 8.7 billion. The number of active accounts was also up from 4.7 million to 5 million.
Despite a dip in active accounts, to 6.2 million, real event betting saw revenue increase from £209.9M to £232.9M - a more than 10% rise.
Virtual betting saw similar results. The number of active accounts fell 32% to 133,000, while the number of bets placed fell 10% to 8 million. But, revenue was up a fraction of a percent to £3.5M.
Esports betting, which is emerging as vertical rising in popularity, also saw GGY increase. In March last year esports GGY grew from £1.1M to £1.3M - an increase of 13%.
Further, esports has a packed summer schedule that includes the $75M Esports World Cup, so those figures are likely to keep increasing.
Affordability checks concerns
The UK gambling industry has endured a turbulent few months. In addition to the aforementioned tax increases, which came into effect last month, there has been ongoing debate over proposed affordability checks.
Despite promises that proposed financial risk assessments would be frictionless, the UK Government looks likely to introduce changes that would require many punters to provide bank statements, pay slips and other personal data to continue betting.
The horse racing industry, in particular, has called for a pause to the checks. They have criticised the checks, pointing to the fact that they only consider a punter's spend without considering frequency, profit, loss and other factors such as savings.
