SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has published wave-1 datasets of Year-2 (2024) of the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB) providing statistics on gambling participation.
The redesigned survey forms part of the Gambling Commission’s new operating structure monitoring UK gambling prevalence and activities under a new methodology and approach to data collection.
As previously noted, the Commission supports a new survey “to establish a new baseline for understanding gambling behaviours in Great Britain.”
The Commission stands by its new methodology to provide the most comprehensive evaluation of gambling participation undertaken by a regulatory authority.
For 2024, wave-1 datasets on gambling participation have been published for fieldwork conducted on a sample size of 5191 adults aged 18+, by the National Centre of Social Research (NatCen) for the period of January-to-April.
Once more, the Commission reminds stakeholders that datasets of the GSGB are not comparable with previous gambling survey publications due to the survey adopting a new methodology.
Wave-1 datasets on gambling participation remain consistent with 2023 figures as 48% of respondents participated in some form of gambling within the past 4 weeks.
A breakdown of gambling participation noted that over one-fifth of respondents (21%) took part in Lottery draws. Excluding those who only participated in lottery draws, overall gambling participation stood at 27%.
A demographic breakdown revealed gambling participation (those who gambled in the past four weeks) was highest amongst participants aged 45 to 54 years old, indexing at 60%; however, excluding lotteries, the segment dropped to 36%.
Excluding lottery-only participants, the age group with the highest gambling participation shifts to males aged 35 to 44 (38%), followed by males aged 18-to-24 (37%).
The above demographics maintained the highest participation rates for online gambling (excluding lotteries) at males aged 35 to 44 (29%) and males aged 18-to-24 (25%).
Overall online gambling participation rate was 38%, but excluding lottery-type players, the rate drops to 16%.
The National Lottery draws remain the most popular gambling activity, with 32% of all participants taking part. Participation is slightly higher among males (34%) compared to females (30%).
Scratchcards were played by 14% of respondents, with nearly equal participation rates between males (13%) and females (14%).
Sports betting maintained a participation rate of 9%, with live football (7%) holding the highest participation amongst males. The higher-risk categories of online casino games and online slots had an equal 3% participation rate.
UK online licensees are reminded that Starting 1 July 2024, the UKGC will require gambling licensees to submit regulatory returns quarterly, replacing the previous annual or less frequent reporting schedules.
The Commission seeks to harmonise reporting periods, ensuring all licensees submit data for the same timeframes, enabling more frequent data availability for researchers and stakeholders.
The Commission will not present its new statistics on problem gambling prevalence until wave-1 and wave-2 datasets are collected to complete the GSGB official 2024 survey.
