A new data set from the British Gambling Commission shows the impact that the pandemic has been having on UK gambling operators. The severity of pandemic-related business fluctuations varied greatly from market segment to market segment with land-based casinos, retail betting shops, and horse racing tracks taking the brunt of the damage. On the other end of the spectrum, online gambling operators saw their business, predictably, increase while the country’s population was living on lockdown.

The new numbers cover the period from April 2020 to September 2020, the deep, dark heart of the pandemic, and shows that operators brought in revenue totaling £5.89 billion ($8.35 billion USD). That compares to £14.12 billion ($20.1 billion USD) for the same period in 2019. The decline can be directly traced to 2020 closure orders that left retail betting shops, casinos and horse tracks shuttered.

Not surprisingly, the most profitable sector of the UK gambling market was the online casino sector with £1.94 billion ($2.75 billion USD) in revenue. Online sports betting, another natural pairing with locked down life, brought in £1.04 billion ($1.4 billion USD). The National Lottery, which would seem to pair better with land-based retailers, brought in £1.61 billion ($2.27 billion USD) in revenue.

Online casino play, which was subject to some pandemic-related regulations, saw significant growth during the reporting period as compared with 2019′s numbers. Online gambling operators saw their business balloon 9.6 percent over the previous year during lockdown. During this period, approximately 15.3 million new accounts were opened for the purposes of online gambling.

Bingo, a longtime UK favorite, saw a six percent growth in its revenue for the lockdown reporting period.

Though the UK is slowly coming back to life, there’s every indication that some sectors of the gambling industry will have a tougher time recovering than others.

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