ONLINE BINGO AS WE KNOW IT IS LEAVING GROWING PAINS BEHIND AND HITTING THE TURBULENT TEENAGE YEARS.

In just a decade, the gross gambling yield has grown with 66% to reach a record £3.9bn in 2017. Income from remote betting (online casinos, online poker and online bingo) was just £817m in 2009 but has since reached £4.5bn, making up more than a third of the industry. It’s obvious that the online gambling industry is doing more than well, but will online bingo continue to grow after all the political and financial changes?

2017 has been an interesting year for online bingo. Mildly put. New rules about the design and content, tax regulations and ad limitations have influenced the number of sites and closures and changed the way some of the most famous brands look and advertise.

But it’s obvious that bingo’s transformation has been a long process spanning decades. If we accept that legal and regulated online bingo was born in 2005 with the Gambling Act and the creation of the UK Gambling Commission, it means that in 2018 we’re entering the difficult teenage stage. Leaving cute fluffy mascots behind, operators now need to offer a level of responsibility and maturity in their product development and marketing and deal with political and financial changes.

But before we get a detailed look at the statistics from last year, and make some predictions for the rest of 2018 and 2019, let’s have a brief overview of the milestones of the regulated bingo industry.