9/22/09 - The UK Gambling Commission has released some interesting statistics estimating the remote (online) gambling market in that country to be worth GBP 896 million in 2008.
The Commission used information from gambling industry trade bodies, the Department for Culture, Media And Sport and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs in arriving at the statistic, as well as information from its own regulatory returns submitted by licensed operators.
The UK gambling industry as a whole achieved a turnover of over GBP 84 billion with gross gambling yield at around GBP 9.9 billion, 25 percent of which was generated by the National Lottery alone.
The regulator revealed that the number of remote gambling licenses issued in 2008 rose from 300 to 328 with the majority of these consisting of betting exchanges alongside football pool and general betting.
“The majority of gambling sites accessible to British citizens are regulated overseas,” the Commission noted.
“In many cases an operator is licensed by the Commission for remote betting but (for fiscal and other operational reasons) its remote casino and poker operations are licensed overseas. The main European overseas jurisdictions regulating remote gambling are Alderney, Gibraltar, the Isle of Man and Malta.”
The report shows that an estimated 7 800 people are employed in the UK remote betting, bingo and casino industry, working with 6.2 million active customer accounts and 4.9 million new player registrations over the year. 16 million customer accounts held some GBP 257 million.
