UK Gambling Industry Breaks Records, But At What Social Cost?

20 September 2026

The world of U.K. betting and gaming is booming, with record-breaking tax revenues in 2025 swelling government coffers. However, the surge in gambling tax receipts is prompting renewed alarm about surging problem gambling.

Betting and gaming duties in the UK reached a record £3.83 billion in 2025/26, up £215 million or 5.9% year on year from £3.62 billion in 2024/25. The tax take on gambling has risen by approximately 175% over the past two decades, from £1.39 billion in 2006/07.

The Betting and Gaming Council said total betting and gaming tax revenues, excluding Lottery Duty and Bingo Duty, more than doubled in nominal terms from £0.7 billion in FY10 to £2.0 billion in FY19, and reached £2.4 billion in FY23.

Tax receipts from remote gaming and online betting are the main drivers of the growth. According to the IPPR think tank, two-thirds of UK gambling tax revenue comes from remote gaming duty, general betting duty, and machine games duty, which together brought in £2.3 billion in the most recent fiscal year.

The UK gambling industry generated £16.8 billion in total gross gambling yield, up 7.3% year on year, industry statistics cited in 2025 coverage showed.

Sports Betting Drives U.S. Tax Growth

Could the same problem gambling cycle be developing in the U.S., where taxes on gambling are also soaring?

National state sales tax revenue from sports betting rose 382% in the U.S., from $190 million in third-quarter 2021 to $917 million in the second quarter of 2025, the U.S. Census Bureau reported.

Tax Foundation data shows that U.S. states collected more than $1.8 billion in sports betting tax revenue in fiscal year 2023. Total U.S. wagers grew more than tenfold, from $10.4 billion in 2019 to $102.8 billion in 2023, while state tax revenue grew by a factor of 23, from $79 million to more than $1.85 billion.

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The American Gaming Association reported that the U.S. commercial gaming industry reached $78.7 billion in gross gaming revenue in 2025, generating $18.1 billion in tax revenue.

In New York, mobile sports betting generated $1.3 billion in state revenue in State Fiscal Year 2026, and gross gaming revenue in New York topped $8.3 billion on $91.2 billion in mobile sports bets since January 2022.

The New York comptroller warned that prediction markets could worsen problem gambling, because chances are invited for anyone over 18, compared to 21 for sports wagering.

State Problem Gambling Cases Rise With Revenues

Rising-addiction problems are following in the revenue's wake. In New York, calls to the state’s HOPEline related to problem gambling reached 2,545, up 8.5% from 2020.

That growth rate in New York appears to be the norm. The Manhattan Institute concluded, in a 2025 analysis, that studies found a 79% increase in calls to a problem-gambling hotline and a more than fivefold increase in the share of the population spending over 1% of income on gambling.

These same forces are at work in Illinois. The state collected more than $2.6 billion in gambling tax revenues last year. Meanwhile, it spends around $1.5 million per year on gambling addiction treatment. That's less than 0.1% of gambling revenues, an annual Illinois report noted.