Last April, the U.K. dropped the maximum stakes for fixed odds betting terminals from £100 to £2. The result for betting shops was not pretty, according to data from the U.K. Gambling Commission.
The number of betting shops dropped 12.1 percent between March and October 2019. Gross gambling yield for B2 machines took a 46.4 percent hit, according to SBC News. Yet B3 machines generated £1.3 billion (US$1.5 billion) in yield between October 2018 and September 2019, an 18.5 percent increase.
Overall gross gaming yield for machines, excluding those that only required a local authority permit, fell by 11.8 percent. But for the industry as a whole, yield dropped to £14.3 billion, a fall of 0.5 percent. This figure declined even further when excluding lottery-type gambling products.
Despite the bleak outlook for the retail sector, the industry’s online sector appeared to buck the trend with across-the-board growth. Remote betting saw a 4.3 percent growth to £2.1 billion between April 2018 and March 2019, while remote bingo yield was £198 million, an increase of 12.5 percent.
