Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many online gambling businesses were registered in total in the UK in each year between 2010 and 2018; and of those, how many were newly registered in each of those years.

Gambling operators can hold a number of licences to allow for multiple forms of activity, including software development and offering gambling services directly to consumers. The number of licences can change as operators add, merge or surrender licences.

The number of unique licensees that held a licence for at least one activity that relates to the provision of 'online' gambling services, whether Business to Business or Business to Consumer, permits operating a gambling website were as follows:

March 2015 - 281

March 2016 - 286

March 2017 - 291

March 2018 - 317

The number of new operators that obtained a licence that permits an 'online' presence in each calendar year was:

2015 - 63

2016 - 47

2017 - 52

2018 - 36

These numbers include some Business to Business licensees who have selected not to offer Business to Consumer services.

Data for the period prior to the Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Act 2014, which moved the regulation of online gambling in the UK to a point of consumption basis, is limited.