The Gambling Commission has published their latest quarterly results for licensed operators in the UK.
And the data does not make for good reading, with gross gambling yield down 18% in quarter three of 2025 compared to the same period a year previously.
The total number of bets placed in high street betting shops fell by 6%, although there was brighter news in that online slots games yielded a 10% increase in revenue.
Alas, this is now the highest taxed niche in UK gambling… so it doesn’t quite present the positive picture that the industry might have been hoping for.
Dark Clouds
The Gambling Commission publishes data, sourced directly from operators, each quarter.
They use a traditional financial year calendar, so quarter three in this case was October-December 2025 – the period that encompasses the government’s decision to hike gambling taxes.
That, of course, was a seismic day for the industry. While retail betting avoided a tax rise, the parent companies of high street shops were hit with tax grabs on their online bets and casino games – key money-making verticals.
So their mood won’t be aided by the latest set of regulator results, which confirm that total gross gambling yield was down by nearly a fifth on the same timeframe in 2024.
That loss of appetite for sports betting saw GGY fall by 18% to £530 million, with the total number of bets placed in quarter three of 2025 down 6% when compared to the same timeframe in 2024. The number of active customer accounts fell by 7%.
In high street betting shops, gross gambling yield declined by 7% to £549 million, while the total number of bets and spins fell by 1% to 3.1 billion.
When looking at combined data for both sports betting and casino gaming online, GGY saw a fall of 2% in the final three months of 2025, with £1.5 billion generated. The number of active accounts fell 2% to 12.7 million, although – curiously – the total number of bets and spins increased 6% compared to the same data in 2024.
This continues what is ever-positive results for online slot gaming in the UK. Gross gambling yield for slots rose 10% in the period to £788 million, with the number of accounts and spins increasing by 5% and 7% respectively (4.6 million and 25.7 million). According to the Gambling Commission, these numbers are all-time highs for the niche.
That said, players are generally spinning the reels for shorter periods of time, with average session length falling by two minutes and the number of sessions lasting an hour decreasing by 16%.
That is counter to the assumed logic, which suggested that session length would increase in line with the maximum stake limit rules implemented in May, which instituted a £5 maximum wager per spin for over 25s and £2 for those aged 18-24.
The numbers regarding online gaming are positive for bookmakers that have diversified into this area, but given that remote gaming duty will rise from 21% to 40% as of April 1, a considerable pinch of salt will be taken when celebrating the latest findings.
Predicting Problems
Meanwhile, the regulator has moved to spell out their position on the prediction markets that are sweeping the United States.
Brands like Polymarket and Kalshi are taking huge chunks out of the US betting market, with nearly $40 billion (around £29.5 billion) wagered on these two platforms alone in 2025.
Free from traditional licensing rules, prediction markets are able to offer ‘yes or no’ style betting options on subjects ranging from will aliens be discovered in 2026 to which country Donald Trump will invade next.
These platforms have received plenty of criticism in the US, with operators able to circumnavigate strict state laws – prediction markets are regulated as financial commodities, rather than betting sites – to offer odds without a gambling licence.
But there won’t be a repeat of that in the UK; as per the Commission’s director of strategy, Brad Enright.
“Whilst the presentation of prediction markets may differ, their core aspects are akin to what in the UK would be described as a ‘betting exchange,” he confirmed.
“If a prediction market operator was to launch here in Great Britain, we do not believe they would be able to classify themselves as non-gambling products.”
Enright went on to point out that it was ‘unlikely’ that prediction markets would set up shop in the UK, where gambling is legal – it remains prohibited in numerous states in America, which is why the loophole exercised by Polymarket and co has proven so fruitful.