Despite the Gambling Tax bombshell that landed in November, the UK gambling sector as a whole recorded a 2.2% rise in gross gambling yield in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Of course, those tax hikes weren’t rolled out until November, so any changes to profitability will most keenly be felt in quarters two and three of this year.
But, even so, it’s a good news story for an industry that has been so shy of those in recent years. And things could get even better if the Betting and Gaming Council’s five-step battleplan to clamp down on the illegal black market proves to be successful.
Revenue Up, Betting Shops Down
The latest data from the regulator presents a mildly positive picture of the UK gambling sector as a whole.
Permed from the period October-December 2025, the statistics show that all UK licensed gambling operators combined posted a gross gambling yield of £4.5 billion – up from £4.3 billion during the third quarter, which equates to a 2.27% rise year-on-year and 4.6% from quarter-to-quarter.
The gross gambling yield of the industry without lotteries included rose from £3.2 billion in June-September to £3.4 billion in October-December, with online operators – grouped together as Remote Casino, Betting and Bingo (RCBB) – experiencing an uptick in fortunes.
Meanwhile, the gross gambling yield for the land-based sector, which incorporates betting shops, casinos, arcades and bingo as per the Gambling Commission’s definition, remained the same from quarter-to-quarter at £1.2 billion.
The picture wasn’t overwhelmingly positive, however. While the total number of gaming machines in licensed premises rose from 190,965 in quarter three to 191,325 in quarter four of 2025, the amount of high street betting shops once again declined.
The total number of gambling premises in the UK fell from 8,254 as of September to 8,148 as of December, which is a drop-off of 1.2%.
Of that, betting shops fell during the same period from 5,782 to 5,669… a decline of nearly 2%.
Of course, this data doesn’t include the 270 shops that William Hill announced would close this year as part of Evoke’s cost cutting exercise – prior to their sale to Bally’s Intralot.
It was right in the middle of Q4 that the UK government announced that Gambling Tax rates would be hiked, with online casino gaming facing the most significant rise – that was first rolled out in April.
So far, the industry has avoided a mass downturn in the wake of the announcement… but significantly weaker results are expected from the first two quarters of this year as firms begin making marketing cutbacks and shutting down promotions.
Fighting Back
The gross gambling yield of the UK gambling sector has undoubtedly been hit the illegal black market in recent years.
Unlicensed betting sites are said to rake in as much as £4.3 billion a year from UK punters, while millions of pounds are expected to be wagered with illegal firms during the World Cup.
The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) has a vested interest in this as they represent the interests of dozens of UK licensed gambling firms. And they have set out a five-point battleplan to begin the fight back against the unregulated market.
Top of the agenda is preventing black market operators from advertising to punters in the UK, which the BGC aims to achieve by placing more pressure on social media companies to disrupt the activities of illegal bookies on the likes of X, WhatsApp and Snapchat.
The BGC wants the Gambling Commission to have more powers to block the websites and apps of illegal firms, who use the ‘skin’ of a legitimate betting site in order to appear professional and trustworthy.
On their watch, payment providers would be prohibited from processing transactions paid to illegal operators – that would help to stop such sites from growing and becoming profitable.
Any companies from the above sectors should be held up to scrutiny, believes the BGC, with suitable penalties if they are found not to be doing enough to tackle illegal gambling posts and ads.
The fifth and final point in the BGC’s manifesto is to ‘get tougher’ on unlicensed operators; ‘the penalties for operating illegal gambling businesses should reflect the significant consumer harm they can cause,’ claims the industry trade body.
The chief executive of the BGC, Grainne Hurst, commented:
“The black market is growing fast, becoming more visible and attracting billions of pounds in stakes from British consumers.
“If policy makers fail to tackle this growing threat, more gambling will take place in environments with no safeguards, no oversight and no consumer protections.
“This is not simply an issue for the regulated industry. It is a consumer protection issue, a public health issue and a criminal justice issue.”