The United Kingdom has long been known as one of the gambling centers of the world, a recent study published by Statista has revealed a startling fact.

The UK has risen to the second-largest gambling market in the world rankings, beaten only by the United States.

This is good news for the gambling sector, and to an extent, HM Revenue and Customs, which took a little under £4bn in tax receipts from the sector in the financial year 2023-24.

What do the figures say?

The report, which has been compiled by a Japanese casino site, studied the gambling markets of 61 nations.

It revealed that projected revenue for the UK gambling sector in 2024 is projected to reach £11.01bn, placing the market second in the global list, behind the US, where the revenue is predicted to reach around £18.41bn by the end of the year.

This rise in revenue represents a significant increase over the previous year, around 7.4. This rate of growth is expected to slow, plateauing at 3.8% yearly between 2024 and 2028.

What is driving this dramatic increase, and should we be pleased or concerned about the UK’s prominent place in the gambling league tables?

The History of Gambling in the UK

The UK certainly has an advantage over other nations when it comes to gambling revenue, due to its long history of gambling, both legal and illegal, which means that it is deeply ingrained in UK culture.

The industry can trace its origins back to the 18th century, when aristocrats, wealthy merchants, and the public wagered thousands of pounds on horse racing at Newmarket, cricket matches in London, and boxing contests around the country.

Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, gambling in the UK was either illegal or existed in a grey area of law.

Legalisation through the Racecourse Betting Act (1928), the Betting and Lotteries Act (1934), and the Betting and Gaming Act (1960) brought various forms of gambling into the legal fold, and the internet supercharged the growth of all forms of gambling – although, as with many other nations, the UK initially struggled to properly regulate the online gambling sector.

Multiple drivers of gambling growth

Figures gathered by YouGov as part of their Global Gambling Profiles project show that just under 30% of adults in the UK have taken part in online gambling of some form and that nearly half of online gamblers spent more than £5 every month on sports-related bets.

A quarter of online gamblers played slot machines, while casino games, bingo, and the national lottery made up the remainder of the main gambling activities, encompassing a huge online industry.

The gambling guide and review site https://www.casinosherlock.com details the sheer variety of online casinos available to UK players, offering everything from the latest slot games to live casino and bingo, along with the ever-increasing range of payment methods accepted by these sites.

One potential factor that makes the UK an attractive gambling environment is the absence of a customer betting tax.

The tax on winnings was abolished in the UK in 2001, and tax revenue is raised from the betting industry through a tax on the profits of betting companies.

Money won through gambling is also not regarded as income for tax purposes, so players landing a big win in the UK are therefore able to take the full amount of their win.

A long-established legal framework for gambling may also be playing a role. People are likely to feel more comfortable, both legally and ethically, in gambling as part of a regulated and long-established market than in other jurisdictions where the legal position is less clear, and the increasing pressure put on the UK Gambling Commission by politicians to be more robust in its enforcement actions may provide further reassurance.

The modern trend towards always online has been a huge driver for growth in many industries, the trend has been apparent to experts since the early 2000s.

This was somewhat accelerated by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Denied access to traditional brick-and-mortar casinos online platforms saw a huge influx of players entering the ecosystem, the convenience and range of options available through online gambling an understandably attractive offering to modern gamblers.

Those who had switched to online gambling may not have felt inclined to go back to more traditional forms of gambling once the pandemic restrictions were eased.

Gambling around the world

The UK is not alone in experiencing dramatic growth in the gambling sector.

Top of the list is the US, which is forecast to see a rise in the size of its gambling sector of 20.3% this year.

It is important to note that the US is a special case, as the process of legalization of sports betting has been on a state-by-state basis, and some state-based markets are still growing.

Florida, Kentucky and Maine all saw some form of sports betting launched in the last quarter of 2023, while North Carolina launched online sports betting in April this year.

In the next two years, Alabama, Georgia, Minnesota and Missouri may all establish their own industries, although the situation in the major states of California and Texas is a little more complicated.

However, the same pattern is also seen across other, more established betting markets. Australia’s predicted increase of 10.5% in gambling revenue in 2024 is remarkable, as is its forecast annual increase of 5.12% every year until 2028.

Fourth-placed Japan is also predicted to see a big rise of 12.7% to a new total of £4.95 billion by the end of the year, and it is estimated that there will be over 11 million gambling customers in Japan by 2028.

Gambling concerns

Such a dramatic increase in gambling activity and the size of the gambling market is an obvious public health concern and will add to the pressure on the government and regulators to do more to protect consumers from the risk of gambling harm and to fund treatment.

It has long been established that gambling can lead to addiction, and while the percentage of the overall gambling customer base at risk of gambling harm remains consistent, any increase in the number of gamblers will logically produce an increase in those affected by problem gambling.

Some tightening of the rules has been implemented by the UK government and regulator in recent years, including a maximum stake of £2 for certain types of betting machines, requirements for betting companies to contribute more to funds to support problem gamblers, and rules around affordability checks, customer protection, and advertising, but as the size of the UK gambling market continues to increase, it is likely that more demands will be made of regulators and government to protect those at risk.