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Global Gambling Statistics & Facts 2023

Q: ❓ What Are the Most Popular Gambling Games?

It depends on the country. While lotteries represent the majority of gambling revenue in the US, it loses to pokies/slots in New Zealand, the UK, and Australia.

Leo Coleman
Updated on August 28, 2023

Numbers can be identified as a constant presence in the world of gambling. However, it is not only to calculate the odds of a sports event or the chances of a roulette game that they are useful. One year after the other, relevant information on revenue, evolution, and expenses is published.

We believe that everyone, from casinos to players, should get hold of that precious knowledge. That way, it is possible to identify if people are gambling responsibly and whether the industry is improving or not. As always, our team of specialists endeavors their best efforts to make sure everything is detailed in a simple manner.

Gambling Statistics for 2022 – Quick Overview

Asia is the leading region in terms of revenue in gambling (31.3%).
In 2020, predictions tell revenues should suffer greatly (minus US$ 80 billion) due to the pandemic.
Total gambling revenue in 2019 reached.
In percentage terms, Africa had the greatest growth in the past years.
Sports betting represents the largest online gambling sector.
The five top gambling markets are China, the USA, Japan, South Korea, and Germany.
2019 revenue levels may not be reached again before 2022.
Great Britain achieved a total gross gambling yield of £14.3 billion in 2019.
The online gambling market revenue currently totalizes US$53.7 billion, most of which is represented by sports betting.

General Gambling Stats & Facts

In order to better explain and show how the entire gambling industry is evolving, we created charts and graphics for your visualization. We are sure you are curious to understand how the data above looks like when illustrated.

🌎 Gambling Around the World

It is clear that there is a lot of people gambling from the three-digit billion figure. However, let us get familiarized with how the revenue is divided for both general and online gambling.

All the years with an “E” added to them represent that there is still not enough data to state the total gambling revenue. Keep in mind the losses from 2019 onwards represent the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Those with an (*) indicate that such values may never occur, as the 2019 levels may not recover before 2023.

It is also noteworthy that all information regarding estimation was not correct, even before the crisis. Mostly, institutions and consultancy companies would estimate 4-6% growth on a yearly basis. The fact is, they would mostly overestimate the increase in revenue, usually 3-4x lower than expected.

Even so, disregarding the pandemic impact, it is a fact that gambling is growing all around the world. If it were not for Covid-19, we could expect levels at least near US$500 billion by 2023.

Talking about estimates, 2019 was expected to generate US$ 43.2 billion for the online gambling sector. Our sources state that it managed to reach over US$ 53 billion. In other words, it seems that online gambling has the capacity to surpass estimates, and general gambling, the opposite.

🤵 How Many People Are Gambling?

All that money comes from gamblers all around the world: North America, Latin America, Asia, Africa, and every country that allows online gambling or land-based casinos and lotteries. Therefore, it would be great to know how many people are gambling.

On the other hand, although some websites create estimates out of nowhere, we prefer to be honest. We count on studies and reports to bring you the following facts related to the biggest gambling markets:

Even though it may look as if that information is simply for curiosity purposes, there is more to it than meets the eye. It is a known fact to online gamblers that responsibility has to be part of their lives, as it may become an addiction. Knowing how many people gamble and their behavior is how authorities can identify if there are issues that need regulation or help.

🃏 What Are People Gambling on the Most?

Around 20% of the world population gamble at some point in their lives and that number seems to be increasing – especially thanks to online gambling. But what are they gambling on the most?

Those who have bet on sports may just as well purchase a lottery ticket, for they are guessing well. In fact, sports betting has been the main choice of gamblers for almost 15 years now, according to the most recent data:

Both sports betting and casino have grown from 2007 to 2017, while skill and poker betting lost their favoritism. Also growing but in much smaller proportions are the lottery games. It is important to highlight that those proportions above do not reflect the total number of players, but the total spent on them.

In terms of casinos, slots are the most famous casino game in all three English-speaking countries U.S., UK, and Australia. The most recent estimate is that it is the preference of 53% of all social casino players. However, that is an aggregate comparative that does not survive an individual check:

💵 How Much Are People Spending on Gambling?

So now we know where people are spending their money, but not how much. Our “General and Online Gambling Revenue (US$ billion)” chart gives a general and more updated idea of that amount. However, we also got some details from some countries for those of you who are really interested in the specifics:

Another interesting fact is that gamblers who can already be considered as problematic gamble around £98 a day.

💵 Gambling Losses

Gambling can be a great source of fun, as long as it is taken in a responsible manner. Checking the total gambling losses not only per region but also per adult is a great indicator of responsibility. Lack of control or simply a dedication to a source of entertainment are divided by a fine line, which is why we have gambling commissions and regulators all over the world.

Our graph clearly indicates that Australia, Hong Kong, and Singapore adults spent far more than gamblers from the rest of the world, on average. Contrary to popular beliefs, the United States got the 9^th place in the Top 10 gambling losses.

💵 Why do Australian adults spend far more on gambling?

It may not be 100% accurate, saying that gambling is part of the Australian culture, but it is definitely embraced by most Aussies. Brands and casinos advertise everywhere, so it is quite impossible to keep yourself entirely away from gambling. In statistic terms, most of the expenditures are on the famous pokies, or slot machines. In fact, 20% of all registered slot machines are found in Australia.

Sports betting is also increasing there, but it is definitely the huge availability and the high additivity of pokies that explain an average of $958 loss per Australian adult gambler.

As for the other countries, the high losses per adult in gambling are resulting in some contrary efforts. In Singapore, the government is taxing and adding fees even to entering a casino, in order to diminish that number. To this point, it seems not to have the effect they were expecting.

💵 Gambling losses per country

The countries that lead the loss per adult statistics are not necessarily those with the highest gambling losses. After all, there might be many more people gambling less, but still summing up to higher losses. That is what our next chart will reveal:

Therefore, even though the USA is not one of the countries with the biggest losses per adult, it has the second position when we consider the entire country amount. Also, for those interested in the latest data from other countries, we managed to collect some of them:

Gambling Industry Trends: Predicting the Future of World Gambling

In terms of growth, it is expected that the Asia-Pacific and Africa regions will be responsible for pushing forward gambling growth. Forecasts estimate annual growth with rates of around 8%.

As for the gambling categories, sports betting continues to grow at an annual rate of 7%. Online gambling, on the other hand, is not the favorite in terms of percentage growth. It seems that VR betting should take that position from now to 2023, at an average rate of 21.5% every year.

As a matter of fact, virtual (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies have everything to change the way we see casinos. The best part is that the whole new experience can be applied to both land-based and online casinos, with their own specific setups.

Until it becomes really popular, we still continue to be able to bet on live events online and check new slots/pokies release on a weekly basis.

💵 Global Gambling Revenues 2020

When the 2020 global gambling results finally come, it is expected that we will see a large drop in terms of revenue. At the same time, the online gambling market is expected to have grown about 13.2% by the time 2020 is past gone. An estimated total of US$ 66.7 billion as revenue can be attributed to the pandemic, which made gamblers stay at home for a long period.

That market comprises all the gambling activities performed in a remote manner, through desktops and mobile devices. It embraces:

In another optimistic but still reasonable forecast, that same market is expected to reach US$92.9 billion in 2023, still growing at rates above 10% every year. Therefore, from 2020 on, online gambling will acquire an increasing relevance in the global gambling market.

💵 Coronavirus Impact

Current forecasts estimate that gambling revenues should expect something of the order of US$80 billion less in 2020 than in 2019. That impact results from the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, including shutdowns. Most of those losses would come from the Asian market, around US$29 billion (36%), as it is also the largest gambling market.

💵 Impact on GGR by Regions and Games

The gaming world goes from simple casual apps to actual gambling titles, such as the popular online slots. Between December 2019 and March 2020, the gambling games were almost as popular (36%) than the shooter games (40%), which are increasingly popular. That is causally related to the fact that people were trying to find entertainment options when at home.

Shutdown and quarantine measures were responsible for affecting gambling activities that represent 60% of the total gambling revenue. It began in January, applied to Chinese lotteries, but it was only by March that casinos across Europe and North America were affected.

Fortunately, restrictions are changing, and we barely hear about shutdowns now. In the chart below, we specified in a visual manner how each region would be impacted, as per current expectations, in terms of gross gambling revenue.

Europe and North America will account for losses of similar magnitude, around US$20 billion. In total, the 2020 estimate is of US$380.4 billion as the total revenue. As previously stated in this article, we should expect to see a recovery by 2021/2022.

💵 Losses by Regions

Each region was affected in a certain manner, depending on the gambling public and the main activities responsible for most of the revenue. Therefore, we listed the main impacts at the beginning and during the worst period – in terms of restrictions – of the pandemic:

Chinese lotteries saw around US$5 billion worth of lottery games become 0 in less than two months (December-February).
Gaming revenues in Macao in January 2020 were already lower than during the same period in 2019 but were reduced to almost none by April.
Singapore saw its tourist inflow reduce from almost 2 million (December 2019 and January 2020) to not much above 200 thousand by March 2020.
South Korea was recovering its Chinese tourists' attention, reaching over 500,000 visitors from the foreign country before they were reduced to 0 (January 2020).
All retail gambling venues in the UK were closed by March 2020, and they represented 50% of the region’s income – except for lotteries.

🃏 Social Gambling

After all that information on growth, forecasts, and demographic data on gambling, there is another movement we should pay attention to. It is called social gambling, and it is increasingly popular, especially in pandemic times.

In summary, it joins people from all around the world to bet together. Most of the time, they play with free and costless chips, involving no money transfer. However, there can be prizes, tournament awards, and the purchase of some features the players consider necessary.

The most popular social casino franchises are:

In all three main English-speaking countries (the US, the UK, and Australia), 53% of the social casino users prefer slots (pokies). As already stated in this article, there are some differences connected to bingo and card games between those countries.

While it is an option never to invest money in such games, 45% of the respondent players indicated to a study they have already spent money on them. Interestingly, high rollers on those ground are those who spend around $25 per month, which is comparable to any casual game with in-app purchases.

Some of them even carry out such transactions with cryptocurrency, although they still represent a minor percentage of the total. Social gambling is a great alternative to simply playing the demo version of casino games for free – and is becoming more popular.

📱 Mobile Gambling

Mobile gambling is possible through the simple access of websites through a browser or via apps located in official stores or with a downloadable APK. For instance, in the United States, gambling & lottery apps represented 9.3% of all searches in app categories – and that includes social applications – in 2019.

As individual access and use of data for apps and mobile gambling, in general, are difficult to gather from operators, it is not so easy to analyze. However, we know it is directly related to online gambling and that most people gambling on online casinos and sportsbooks will use their mobile phones.

As of 2015, 40% of mobile users were using mobile applications to place bets. In total, that would represent a total of 20% of all bets. One year before that (2014), the revenue estimation of bets from mobile devices was of US$11.4 billion (worldwide). Future forecasts indicate a total of US$53.73 billion revenue by 2025, coming from the mobile gambling market alone.

Nowadays, the European market is responsible for a share of 57% in the mobile gambling market. The Asia-Pacific region, however, is the fastest-growing region. In the future, the number of apps may increase, and perhaps mobile gambling will be used together with VR technology.

Top Gambling Centers

We selected four top gambling centers – or centres, depending on your choice – and their most relevant stats. We could get to know the following countries and their respective information on gamblers, licensed operators, and revenue through the most recent data:

1️⃣ United Kingdom

Gambling in the UK is regulated by the UK Gambling Commission, responsible for such activity since 2005. The whole industry moved £14.3 billion in a year (Oct 2018 to Sep 2019), which is not much different from the previous period. It is divided in the following manner:

It is also noteworthy that licensed activities decreased to 3,641, a minor setback of 0.4%, given to 2,652 operators (-1.3%). The number of licenses decreased mostly because of the increase in online betting and casino offers.

Also, since April 2019, the maximum stake for B2 machines was severely reduced (£100 to £2), which should explain some of the negative impacts.

Demographically, the online gamblers of the UK are divided into the following manner:

2️⃣ Australia

Australia is probably the country within this whole article where the entire territory better accepts gambling. Statistically speaking, around 80% of the Aussies enjoy gambling now and then, resulting in around 10% of the state’s revenues. We can inform they are divided the following way:

The latest demographical information on Aussie gamblers and players gives us a great picture of what that public looks like:

The stats confirm that the majority of Australian gamblers are 30-49 years old and that there is little difference when it comes to gender. However, while the distribution in terms of age did not seem to change much over the years, that cannot be said regarding gender.

Back in 2011, women represented only 7.2% of all gamblers. Now, they correspond to an incredible 45.8%, getting closer to their proportion to men in terms of population (51% and 49%, respectively).

3️⃣ Canada

Canada’s provinces have their own legislation and regulation on casinos, while online gambling is much easier to access for Canadians. The most successful gambling activity in some provinces, however, is definitely the lottery:

Together with the lotteries, we collected some data related to the percentage of casino visitors who are fond of slot machines. According to over 1,000 respondents in the year of 2015, their preference for slots was:

If we compare those results from 2015 to the Ipsos Reid Lottery & Gaming study (2013), there is a considerable difference. Back then and according to their respondents, 49% would always play slot machines.

Finally, the best way to identify how Canadians gamble is to create a scenario considering both age distribution and their preferable gambling choice. Keep in mind that, although lotteries are extremely popular, it is within casinos that most revenue is found since 2017:

4️⃣ United States

There is no living soul that can think of a casino and not relate it to Las Vegas. Just as it happens in other countries, its states are free to legislate and regulate most of what is linked to gambling. That results in different scenarios within the same country.

Recently, in 2018, the ban on sports betting was lifted, and that led to an expected increase in the participation of that type of gambling in the US. A survey in March 2020 discovered that 13% of over 2,100 U.S. respondents were betting on sports.

Even so, the lotteries are responsible for the majority of the revenue connected to gambling in the U.S. It represents almost the double collected by casinos as of the date. We created an original graph comparing both the most profitable gambling options in the US:

While Nevada’s huge contribution to the casino revenue comes from Las Vegas, some states do not contribute at all. Perhaps, if every single state in the United States allowed casinos, that difference between lotteries and casinos would change.

The latest data on the age group of casino visitors in the US is a bit old (2010), but will be informed as a way to compare to the other countries:

🎰 Most Popular Online Gambling Games

🎰 Interesting Facts about Gambling

FAQs

What Are the Most Popular Gambling Games?

It depends on the country. While lotteries represent the majority of gambling revenue in the US, it loses to pokies/slots in New Zealand, the UK, and Australia.

What Percentage of Winnings Are Paid to Online Gamblers?

Online gambling usually does not include taxes and fees on winnings. The casinos’ profit tends to be included in their odds (for sports) or in the chances of their high-quality games.

Is It Possible to Earn Money From Social Gambling?

Social games are much more a source of entertaining and fun than a profitable distraction. Even so, companies may install tournaments with prizes for its members.

Where People Gamble the Most?

According to our research, Australia is the country responsible for the greatest loss per adult in terms of gambling.

How Big Is the Gambling Market?

Although it has been severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, the overall gambling market reached a value of US$ 435 billion in 2019 alone. Meanwhile, online gambling has been increasing and reached a record amount of over US$53 billion.

Summary

Resources

Online gambling is expanding, and VR technologies may become part of it soon.
The entire industry was severely affected by the recent health crisis, but it should recover by 2022.
Mobile gambling already represents a considerable portion (over 20%) of actual bets.ed.
The European market has the highest contribution when it comes to online gambling (57%).
In terms of growth, the Asia-Pacific region beats all other continents – overall gambling.
Australian players collect the highest gambling losses in the world.
Australian women almost equated their participation in gambling compared to men.