UK LEGAL
Northridge Law’s Melanie Ellis new Gambling Survey.
O
n 25 July 2024, the Gambling Commission released its first full Annual Report from its new
Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB). The project is billed by the Commission as part of its “strive for better evidence to inform better decisions which will lead to better regulation”. In a blog post announcing the new statistics, the Commission’s Ben Haden (Director of Research and Statistics) stated that, “We are now confident that we have an independently recognised robust methodology that will help us to track trends in gambling behaviour in the years to come”.
With this confidence, why then did the Commission feel the need to release guidance alongside the new statistics, restricting how the data should be used? The guidance includes a statement that, “There is a risk that the GSGB may overstate some gambling behaviours and therefore
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estimates should be used with some caution.” It goes on to admit that, “Further investigation of the possible reasons for this is needed”. Due to this risk, the Commission warns that its data should not be used to calculate an overall rate of gambling-related harm in Great Britain, nor to provide direct comparisons with results from prior gambling or health surveys. The comparison with previous rates of problem gambling is one of the key reasons why alarm bells have been ringing about the accuracy of this survey data. The Commission’s previous telephone survey methodology had most recently found a population problem gambling rate of 0.2%, while a problem gambling screening in the NHS’s Health Survey found a rate of 0.3%. It is entirely understandable that the average observer would see the rate of 2.5% found in the GSGB and conclude that rates of problem gambling have increased in recent years, particularly in the context of increased
media coverage of this “growing problem”. This is what the Commission is trying to avoid with its guidance and promise to call out misuse of statistics, but unfortunately now it has made these latest results “official statistics”, its efforts may be in vain. The data in the survey which breaks down rates of problem gambling by gambling activity will be particularly relevant to operators. Whilst the Commission would likely point out that their primary utility will be to measure changes over time (for example, the impact of measures arising from the White Paper on problem gambling rates, such as whether the proposed online slots stakes limits reduces problem gambling rates for these products), operators may be expected to use these rates to guide their safer gambling and customer interaction procedures. Remote operators are required to “take account of problem gambling rates for the relevant gambling activity as published by
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