The Gambling Commission has published further data showing how gambling behaviour is reacting to current environmental factors in Great Britain.

The operator data reflects the period between March 2020 and June 2022, inclusive, and covers online and in-person gambling with data from Licensed Betting Operators (LBOs) found on Britain’s high streets.

The latest operator data shows:

• online total Gross Gambling Yield (GGY) in Q1 (April to June) was £1.2 billion, an increase of nearly 1% from Q4 (January to March). The overall number of total bets/spins increased 5% from Q4 to Q1, the average monthly active accounts¹ increased 5%
• slots GGY increased 4% to nearly £565 million between Q4 and Q1. The number of spins increased 5% to 18.7 billion, while the average monthly active accounts increased 4% to 3.6 million per month
• the number of online slots sessions lasting longer than an hour increased by 5% (to 8.4 million) between Q4 and Q1. The average session length lasted 17 minutes (a decrease of one minute), with approximately 7% of all sessions lasting more than one hour
• LBO GGY increased 6% to £584 million between Q4 and Q1, while the number of total bets and spins increased 3% to 3.3 billion.

The Gambling Commission wrote:

We continue to expect extra vigilance from operators as consumers are impacted in different ways by the circumstances brought on by the pandemic and the wider economic environment. Many people will still feel vulnerable as a result of the length of the pandemic period, further uncertainty about their personal or financial circumstances or readjusting budgets and time as life returns to normal with a wider set of finance drivers.

We expect operators to:

• • continue to follow the strengthened guidance issued during the first lockdown, taking close interest in data that shows consumers expanding their portfolio of games and spending more time or money than before
  • interact directly where triggers are reached, in addition to their more generic email engagement
  • avoid any temptation to exploit the current situation for marketing purposes, in particular as consumers adjust back to a new normal and be very cautious when seeking to cross-sell products
  • take particular care when on-boarding new customers and making decisions over affordability checks which reflect the environment we are in.

The Commission continues to track market related risk by:

• • assessing the impact of the strengthened guidance issued to operators
  • monitoring key data along with collecting and publishing this additional data
  • where evidence identifies additional risks faced by consumers, taking further action to protect consumers.

and will continue to:

• • take steps to permanently strengthen regulatory requirements, encompassing changes to Remote Technical Standards (RTS) and Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP) to protect consumers
  • monitor operators very closely and conduct our compliance assessments.