Online slots in Great Britain produced £4.8 billion in gross gambling yield (GGY) in the financial year April 2025 to March 2026. GGY is the amount operators keep from customers' stakes after paying out winnings. The previous year's figure was £4.1 billion.
The figure comes from the Gambling Commission's Industry Statistics annual report for April 2025 to March 2026, published on 17 September 2026. It is the first annual figure to cover a year in which both online slot stake limits were in force. The limits are £5 per spin for adults aged 25 and over, from 9 April 2025, and £2 per spin for adults aged 18 to 24, from 21 May 2025. Readers will see this figure quoted in coverage of whether the stake limits worked. This page sets out what the figure measures and what it can and cannot support.
How GGY is measured
The Commission defines GGY as the revenue operators generate from customers in Great Britain after winnings are paid out but before operating costs are deducted. In plain terms, GGY is total stakes minus total winnings paid.
GGY is calculated across all players together. It is not a measure of any one player's losses. Some players finish a period ahead and some finish behind. GGY is the net amount across all of them.
A hypothetical calculation
Say players on one slot stake a combined £100 in a day. The slot pays out £93 in winnings across all of those spins.
| Total stakes | £100 |
|---|---|
| Total winnings paid | £93 |
| GGY (stakes minus winnings) | £7 |
The operator's GGY is £7. Tax, staff, software and other costs have not yet been deducted. The £7 is therefore not profit.
Where the slots figure appears in the regulator's data
The Commission groups online gambling into one sector: Remote Casino, Betting and Bingo (RCBB). Online slots sit inside the online casino category, which sits inside RCBB.
The annual figures for April 2025 to March 2026 are:
- RCBB sector GGY: £8.3 billion, up 6.9%.
- Online casino games GGY: £5.7 billion. Trade press, including SBC News, reports this as up 14.8%.
- Online slots GGY: £4.8 billion. SBC News gives the unrounded figure as £4.79 billion, up 15.5%. Slots made up about 84% of online casino GGY.
- Total industry GGY: £17.5 billion, up 4.4%. Online slots were about 27% of this total.
The Commission also published quarterly data for January to March 2026 in its market overview release of 21 May 2026. That release gives activity measures that the annual report does not.
Average session length fell by about 2 minutes, to roughly 15 minutes.
What GGY is not
| Measure | What it counts | How it differs from GGY |
|---|---|---|
| Stakes (turnover) | Every amount wagered | Larger than GGY, because winnings have not been subtracted |
| GGY | Stakes minus winnings paid | The figure the Commission reports |
| Operator profit | GGY minus tax and operating costs | Smaller than GGY. The Commission does not report it as GGY |
A rise in GGY does not by itself mean each player lost more. GGY can rise because more people play, because people play more often, or because they stake more per spin.
Reading the £4.8 billion against the stake limits
The figures show that online slots GGY rose in the first year under the stake limits. They do not show what GGY would have been without the limits. No published figure in this release answers that question.
Four points limit what the annual figure can show.
- The year was not entirely under the limits. The £5 limit began on 9 April 2025, 8 days into the financial year. The £2 limit began on 21 May 2025, about 7 weeks in. The first full financial year with both limits in force for every day is April 2026 to March 2027.
- Volume rose. In January to March 2026, spins rose 7% and active accounts rose 6%. A rise in the number of players or spins can raise total GGY even if each session yields less.
- Per-session measures fell. GGY per session, spins per session, session length and the share of sessions over one hour all fell. The Commission links these changes partly to the stake limits. It links them partly to operators refining the automated systems that detect signs of harm. Automated interactions with customers rose about 32%.
- The data does not separate players by age or stake size. The release does not show how much of the change came from 18 to 24 year olds under the £2 limit, or from players who had previously staked above £5.
The market shifts that we see in industry data trends, and this year is no different, are complex and will be down to a mix of factors that need more than one source to unpick.
Some coverage states that the stake limits have not reduced online casino spending at an aggregate level. The figures support the narrower statement that aggregate slots GGY grew. They do not establish why it grew.
What it means for you
If a report says online slot revenue rose since the stake limits, check three things:
- Whether the figure is GGY, stakes or profit.
- Whether it covers the full financial year or a single quarter.
- Whether the report states a cause, and whether the Commission's data supports that cause.
The stake limits cap the amount staked on a single spin. They do not cap how many spins a player makes or how much a player loses over a session. A player's own deposit limits and time-outs remain the controls that apply to an individual account.
The Commission plans its next quarterly release, covering April to June 2026, for December 2026. The next annual release, covering April 2026 to March 2027, is planned for autumn 2027. That release will be the first annual figure with both limits in force for the whole year.
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