
Besides the attendance of SBC at this year’s ICE Barcelona, one of the other notable visits was that of Andrew Rhodes.
Typical of the British banter, the Chief Executive of the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) remarked that the weather in Barcelona is still better than that in London even in February, which only a few would care to disagree with.
One thing that tends to polarise professional opinions however is the current state of the gambling industry, and particularly that of the UK – which Rhodes was more than keen on exploring during his speech at the gambling conference.
His review of the domestic market began on a high note, effectively using just one sentence to explain to the global audience why the UK is still leading by example.
“The most recent industry statistics were released in November, and we have seen that gambling in Great Britain has reached the highest GGY we have ever seen – £15.6bn.
“Those official statistics will tell you plenty about what is going on with gambling in Great Britain,” Rhodes remarked, as he prepared to quote a few of the conclusions from the November report to paint the full picture in more detail.
As it turns out, the GGY of Arcades – or Adult Gaming Centres (AGCs) – has drastically increased, outrunning the rate at which new machines are being introduced to AGC venues.
Something interesting for the game suppliers – the UK sector’s online GGY is “increasingly reliant” on casino games, and slots in particular.
An additional highlight underscored that GGY from horseracing is now the highest on record, and is going up even when the turnover is moving in the opposite direction. And that consumers have diversified their activity, with participation remaining stable.
Lotteries have also seen growth, with the November stats showing that large society lottery sales have gone over the £1bn mark, with the new GSGB research model confirming that prize draw participation is closing in on betting as an activity, and is already well ahead of a number of other activities.
Speaking of sports betting, Rhodes saw the chance to share that he’s seen widening of the sports offering throughout last year, with UK operators pushing the boundaries beyond the traditional horseracing and football and turning to cricket, basketball, NFL and US-based sports in general.
While noting that this certainly smooths the seasonality of gambling, the UKGC Chief nevertheless exercised caution by raising the question of what happens when you adjust for inflation.
“We have not really seen that consumer staking necessarily tracks in line with inflation. For example, we have not seen evidence that if inflation rises to 10% that someone’s normal £10 or £100 bet becomes £11 or £110.
“If you did expect staking in gambling to track with inflation then you would need to overcome that inelasticity,” he explained, adding that the consumer will always be in charge of how much they stake – regardless of margins, return to player ratios, offers, and other incentives.
“We will have to see how these patterns continue.”
The Gambling Act Review White Paper was also brought up in the speech, as it nears its two year-mark since it was first published in April 2023.
Rhodes ensured that he sees no trouble laying ahead with its implementation. Despite a dramatic shift in government as a result of Labour’s victory in the last general election, gambling regulation seems to remain in the same direction as before – having received the full backing of Baroness Twycross.
The UKGC Chief also revealed that the next consultation on Games Machine Technical Standards – an outcome of the 2023 White Paper – will be published within the next “days or weeks”.
Moving on, with consumer safety at the heart of the White Paper, the illegal market was also a key mention in Rhodes’ remarks.
He explained that the UKGC’s focus in 2025 will remain on ‘frustrating’ unlicensed operators by going all out and taking counter measures ‘as far upstream as possible’, meaning that everyone on the supply chain will have their role to play in this fight – from payment providers to search engines.
According to Rhodes, since April 2024 there have been more than 770 cease and desist notices, including 262 issued to operators and 205 to advertisers.
It was also explained that in the same period there have been around 64,000 URLs removed by Google thanks to constant communication between the UKGC and the search engine.
Towards the end of his speech, Rhodes took his time to issue a warning regarding the recent case of licensed games being used by unlicensed websites to target British consumers.
While he confirmed that an investigation into the matter is under way by the Commission, the UKGC Chief urged all license holders to re-examine their B2B and B2C practices and supply chains to ensure that they are up to standard, otherwise they risk losing their GB license with immediate effect.