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Gambling Commission data reveals shifts in player habits
The UK Gambling Commission has shared fresh data looking at how gambling habits have shifted in Great Britain, comparing April–June 2025 with the same period in 2024.
The report pulls data directly from operators and includes both online play and land-based gambling at high street betting shops.
Last year’s quarter saw new stake limits for online slots, with a £5 cap for all adults from April 9, and a stricter £2 limit for 18–24-year-olds from May 21.
Fast forward to Q1 2025, online gambling brought in a total gross gaming yield (GGY) of £1.49B, up 2% year-on-year. The volume of bets and spins increased by 6% to 26.1B, but the number of active monthly accounts dropped 10% to 12.7M.
Looking closer at verticals, real event betting slipped 9% to £570M, with bet volumes falling 7% and active accounts down 16%. In contrast, slots were on the rise. Slots GGY jumped 14% to £745M, with spins increasing 8% to a record 24.4B. Average monthly account numbers for slots stayed steady at 4.4M, while both GGY and spin counts hit new highs.
Player behavior also shifted. The number of slot sessions lasting longer than an hour fell 9% year-on-year to 8.8M. Average session time dropped by one minute to 16 minutes, with only 5% of sessions lasting over an hour, which is down from 6% in 2024. The Commission noted that some operators updated how they track session lengths this quarter, which affected the reporting of these figures.
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