Great Britain has 144,160 gaming machines in operation, according to statistics issued this week by the Gambling Commission.
Those figures break down into 51,192 Category C machines, which are AWPs with a £70 top prize; 46,201 Category D AWPs with a top prize of £5; and the next biggest sector is 32,104, which is fixed odds betting terminals or Category B2, with a £500 jackpot. B3 machines, with a £500 jackpot number 11,828. The remainder are B1 machines in casinos which total 2,327 and B4 £250 jackpot machines which number only 508.
The statistics showed that the total number of machines in adult gaming centres was 64,232 which made a gross profit in 2009/10 of £384m. The majority were Category C machines.
The report stated that the gross gambling yield for 2009/10 was £5.7bn and that 52 per cent of it came from the betting market. Casinos accounted for 14 per cent, bingo 12 per cent, remote gambling 11 per cent, arcades eight per cent and lottery three per cent.
A survey showed that 68 per cent of British adults had participated in some form of gambling activity within the year. The National Lottery was by far the most popular activity with 58 per cent of the population participating; only 14 per cent played slot machines. The incidence of problem gambling shows 0.6 per cent, which equates to 284,000 adults.
Bingo clubs total 570 and the report indicated that 72 adult gaming centres had converted to bingo clubs during the year. Gross sales in bingo was £1.359bn, down five per cent from £1.428bn the previous year. Bingo halls contained nearly 18,000 gaming machines, mostly Category C (£70 jackpot). The largest operator remains Gala Coral Group with 146 locations, followed by Rank with 103. Independents total 199 locations.
