The Gambling Commission has published further data showing how the evolving Covid-19 lockdown measures have impacted online gambling behaviour in Great Britain.

The operator data reflects the period between March 2020 and May 2021, inclusive, and covers both online and, where relevant, some offline gambling operator data, noting that land-based premises have only recently been able to open since closing in December.

The latest online operator data for May 2021 shows:

• Activity in the online market decreased in May with active accounts and gross gambling yield (GGY) both decreasing 14% and 5% respectively, while total bets remained at a similar level.
• Slots GGY increased to £211m during the period from April to May. The number of spins increased 2% and active players decreased 5%.
• The number of online slots sessions lasting longer than an hour decreased by 1% (to just below 2.6m). The average session length increased to 20.7 minutes, with nearly 9% of all sessions lasting more than one hour.

The commission said: "We recognise that the country is now entering a different phase as we continue to ease out of lockdown. We continue to expect extra vigilance from operators as consumers are impacted in different ways by the circumstances. Many people will still feel vulnerable as a result of the length of the pandemic period and further uncertainty about their personal or financial circumstances.

"It is likely many have picked up new gambling routines and habits during lockdown that may be hard to change as things return to normal, even as normal spending on other things resumes. This could be challenging for some and important for operators to identify through their monitoring."