23/09/2009, Casino
The UK Gambling Commission released some results of a detailed research showing that the UK remote gambling market worth £896 million last year.
There were several sources of information which contributed to this figure such as gambling industry trade bodies, Her Majesty’s Revenue And Customs, Media And Sport and the Department of Culture.
The Gambling Commission stated that the UK gambling industry achieved a turnover of over £84 billion in 2006/07 with a gross figure of £9.9 Billion from gambling yield, 25 percent of which being generated by the National Lottery.
The Commission revealed that the number of licenses issued for the remote gambling operators in 2008 increased from 300 to 328.
“The majority of gambling sites accessible to British citizens are regulated overseas. 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 Commission noted.
The UK Gambling Commission reported that an estimated 7800 people are working in the UK remote betting, bingo and casino industry, with 6.2 million active customer accounts and 4.9 million new player registrations over the last year.
The UK gambling market changed over the last two years since the implementation of the Gambling Act in September 2007 and they are facing now with new challenges and opportunities.