I know that you love gambling, but how much do you know about the industry itself? Perhaps you were simply never interested or you didn’t know where to look for it. Yet as with everything, the more you know about the subject you’re involved in, the better informed decisions you can make.
That’s why I’ll be bringing you four installments of Gambling Facts and Figures, analysing the tonnes of data that are available about mobile gambling. Plus, I will analyse it too, so that things make sense and you know exactly how you’re influenced by them. This time, let’s explore the types of gambling: where do gamblers play, what devices do they play on and what games do they prefer.
Gambling has exploded right in our faces in the past decade. Going from corner bookie shops to our home desktops, from laptops on our sofas to the mobile phones that allow us to gamble pretty much anywhere in the world, gambling is a massive industry. A massive amount of data is available on the gambling industry, so let’s delve in and try to make sense of it all! Knowing the industry inside and out will allow you to have an edge over other gamblers, not to mention the many fun facts that you can throw around in conversations with your friends!
Most Popular Gambling Activities
Although Mobile Slots 4U is all about mobile gambling, it is useful to take a glimpse at the entire gambling industry to know precisely what situation it is in. And that’s why I start with this graph of the total UK market and it’s shares split into types of gambling activities.
Upon first glance, betting has got the biggest market share as nearly half of all the gross gaming yield (GGY) is generated by it. From sports to horses, betting in-shop remains the most popular gambling activity in the UK, second only to the National Lottery. Actually, National Lottery generates the biggest GGY and thus proportionally skews the results, so that it’s excluded from this graph!
Then, unsurprisingly, remote gambling follows suit and stands at 17% of the total GGY, a number that was accurate in 2014. However, with mobile gambling booming (see following section), it’s bound to be much larger when the UK Gambling Commission next conduct this study. Meanwhile, casinos (16%), bingo (10%), arcades (6%) and large society lotteries (4%) account for the remainder of the pie of the most popular gambling activities in the UK society.
And don’t forget social gambling too. Although it’s not represented by this graph, it was propelled to success by social media, and games like Farmville, Candy Crush Saga and the likes have gone from strength to strength. Although they aren’t counted towards most of the gambling statistics as they aren’t considered as real-money paying games, the huge popularity of it shouldn’t be discredited.
We don’t have to look far for a great example – Slingo. Having started out as a simple social game on social media, it quickly gained a loyal following and was purchased by developers who brought it to online and mobile casinos. Mixing slots and bingo to create a fun and engaging game, Slingo is a perfect example of social gaming crossing over into gambling. It’s feisty cousin Slingo Extreme is also very popular, because it’s got higher stakes and bigger risks, yet yields larger rewards and wins.
Mobile Devices Gaining Traction
While the National Lottery and betting are huge chunks of the gambling market, the trend of online and mobile gambling cannot be ignored. This is the only gambling sector that is gaining employees, while all the other sectors are losing them. Plus, remote gambling is also gaining new customers at a quick pace: 3.31 million new players registered in 2011 while 6.24 million new players registered at remote casinos in 2014 – nearly double!
It’s no surprise. Although laptops remain the most preferred way to log into online casinos among all age groups, the usage of mobile casinos is increasing. With household ownership of mobile devices ballooning, 44% of British households now have got an iPhone, 46% can use an Android phone to gamble and 12% have opted for a mobile Windows device (GameTrack Q1 2015). To reiterate the point of mobile gambling growth further, there are 1,078 licences granted to provide remote gambling services in the UK and this number is likely to grow and grow.
After all, the growing number of people who frequent online casinos will need places to play! Namely, just under 10% of the general public had wagered a bet online in 2008, increasing to almost 16% in 2014. Plus, Research and Markets study predicts that the global mobile gambling market will experience growth in excess of 43% (total annual wagers) – talk about a booming market!
What Games People Play On Mobiles
So what are all these people playing while sitting on their sofas with a mobile phone (or tablet) in hand? Well, the UK Gambling Commission data (Nov 2014 – Mar 2015)can come in handy here. Of all the Brits playing remotely, the vast majority choose casino games, then betting followed by bingo and the miscellaneous rest. To illustrate, the total GGY of remote casino games was £834.25 million in just half 
a year, while betting had a GGY of £472.74 million and bingo £82.62 million.
Now let’s look at what casino games the public prefers, seeing as it takes in the biggest chunk of money out of all mobile gambling sectors. And there is little surprise here – mobile slots win the race with a total GGY of £532.54 million, followed by a much smaller sum that table games make with a total GGY of £140.34 million. Then, players prefer card games (£67.70 million) over peer to peer (£36.67 million) and other games (£57.01) such as scratch-cards.
So, looking at the entire pie of games available at remote casinos, mobile slots take 64% of the market, followed by 17% market share of table games. And we definitely aren’t surprised by the results, but that’s probably because we love playing mobile slots here at MS4U. If you do too, why not check out our mobile slot reviews section, where we give you the lowdown on all the newest and most popular games that you can play on your mobile? Or hunt down a great bonus promotion and jump straight in all this mobile gambling action!
