Slots Play Increasing with 6% YoY as per UKGC Data
Online slots are continuing to get more popular in the UK, according to the latest release of data from regulatory body the Gambling Commission (UKGC).
Online slots play rose in the period of January to March 2025. © John Schnobrich, Unsplash
Key Facts:
- UKGC’s new data covers the period of January-March 2025
- Slots gross gambling yield (GGY) was found to have increased by 11% to £689 million year-on-year (YoY)
- A rise of 6% in spins during Q4 was also shown by the data
- Online GGY overall was found to be up by 7% when compared to the previous year’s figures
UKGC has released its latest set of figures for the gambling industry in Great Britain, covering the period from January to March 2025 (Q4).
The data shows that online GGY was up by 7% compared to figures for Q4 last year, standing at £1.45 billion for the period.
UKGC said its data shows that the overall number of total bets and/or spins was also up by 5% YoY having increased to 25.2 billion.
In Q4, the average monthly active accounts showed a small rise of 2%, reaching 13.5 million.
GGY for real event betting rose 5% YoY to £596 million, but there was a 1% drop in the number of bets and the average monthly active accounts fell by 2% as well.
Increase In Online Slots Play
While there was a drop in certain aspects of betting for the first quarter of the year 2025, other areas of the UKGC data release show an increase in online casino usage.
The regulator revealed that slots GGY saw a comparatively large rise of 11% in the period of January-March 2025, having hit £689 million.
The number of spins during those three months was 23.4 billion, which is a YoY increase of 6%
UKGC confirmed a new peak for the average monthly active accounts as this figure has now reached 4.5 million, which was up by 6%, but the body issued a note of caution.
In a statement, it said: “It is important to note that historical data has been corrected to take account for the correct categorisation of a game, with the product moving from the casino vertical to the slots vertical.”
The UK government recently rolled out changes to casino regulations, including the introduction of slot stake limits, while operators will also have to pay a new statutory levy.
Casinos and betting sites will have to make their first payments of the levy by October, the UK gambling minister Baroness Twycross has said.
Long Slots Sessions Increasing
Data from the Gambling Commission also provided more details on the extent to which playing online slots is getting more popular in this country.
It said there was a 5% rise in the number of online slots sessions lasting longer than an hour, with this figure hitting 10.1 million.
However, data shows that just 6% of all online slots play sessions lasted for more than an hour.
UKGC also confirmed that its January to March 2025 data shows that the average session length for playing online slots has stayed consistent at 17 minutes.
The body also noted in a statement that comparisons “should not be made with the industry statistics dataset, as this dataset may include free bets and bonuses and does not include data from all operators”.
