Statistics and research release
Cross venue category B gaming machines data
In January 2019, we conducted a call for evidence on cross venue category B gaming machines to gather information on machines.
Summary
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The data and why we collected it
In January 2019, the Gambling Commission conducted a call for evidence on cross venue category B gaming machines to gather information on machines. The data is representative of two periods: April to September 2018 and April to September 2019.
Caution is advised with the data and corresponding analysis as it is not reflective of the entire machines sector.
Details
How this data should be used
The data should not be used for full formal evaluation of machine play changes since the £2 maximum stake for B2 which was introduced in April 2019.
Instead, this data should be used to assess proxies for potential risks to consumers (previously used proxies available in anonymous play data such as time spent and/or monetary spend) within the current stake and prize limits.
Limitations
The data is not representative of all gaming machines in the industry. It was gathered through two of the major machine suppliers, which account for the majority but not all, machines in the gambling industry.
It is important to note that even within a single category of machine, for example B3, there is a vast difference in technological capability depending on the machine’s location, supplier and licence of Business-to-Consumer (B2C) operator.
Category B machines in Licensed Betting Offices (LBO) are all networked and importantly have the functionality to provide notifications to staff in venue or at a remote location. This means the machines can:
- allow consumers to set their own alert thresholds
- 'Back stop' and/or mandatory alerts at a prescribed threshold in the absence of consumers not being able to set their own alert thresholds
- notify staff when thresholds are reached to prompt them to take action.
The majority of Category B machines in Adult Gaming Centres (AGC) are not networked, and for those which are networked in the AGC and bingo sectors, they do not always have the capability to provide notifications to staff.
September 2026 update
During analysis undertaken in 2026 of a separate machines dataset collected as part of the Commission's gaming machine consultation (opens in new tab), an anomaly was identified whereby data from gaming machines located in certain 'high street' bingo premises had been incorrectly allocated to the Adult Gaming Centre (AGC) sector.
Given the nature of this issue, the Commission considers it likely that similar classification errors may also be present within the dataset published on this page.
Stakeholder engagement has indicated that gaming machine activity within 'high street' bingo premises may be more comparable to activity within AGCs than to that observed in traditional bingo clubs. The Commission considers this to be a reasonable interpretation of the available evidence.
As a result, the AGC dataset is likely to provide a broadly representative picture of gaming machine activity within that sector. However, the bingo dataset may primarily reflect activity within traditional bingo clubs and may therefore not fully represent the licensed bingo sector as a whole.
If machine data from 'high street' bingo premises were correctly classified within the bingo sector, the Commission would expect to observe a modest increase in activity at the upper and lower ends of the distributions presented for bingo premises.
Data and downloads
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Feedback
We are always keen to hear how these statistics are used and would welcome your views on this publication.