Online gambling continues to grow in the UK despite a retail downturn, according to figures published by the Gambling Commission.

Gambling Commission

Gross Gambling Yield for online gambling between October 2017 and September 2018 stood at £5.6bn – a 2.9 per cent increased on the 12-month period from April 2017 to March 2018.

The market share of online gambling grew by 1.2 per cent to 39 per cent.

Overall figures, incorporating the land-based and online sectors, showed GGY for the gambling industry in Great Britain of £14.5bn up to September 2018, a 0.4 per cent decrease from the period April 2017 to March 2018.

The number of employees in the industry, betting shops and bingo premises were also slightly down.

Ben Haden, the UK Gambling Commission’s programme director for industry insight, said: “Despite the marginal decline across the wider gambling industry, the online gambling sector continues to grow. Our role as regulator will continue to see us working to raise standards right across the industry.

“Following our comprehensive review of the online gambling sector in 2018, this year we have implemented new rules to strengthen age and ID verification checks and we’ve also been working with partners in financial institutions to develop the role they can play to protect vulnerable consumers.

“Last month we published the new National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms which has a renewed focus on plans to widen research, take a preventative approach to gambling harms, assess treatment provision, embed a culture of evaluation, and encourage industry to collaborate to make gambling safer.’’