UK LEGAL
Next steps for improvement of the Gambling Survey for Great Britain
The Gambling Commission’s Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB) is the regulator’s new source of statistics on gambling behaviour in Great Britain. Melanie Ellis delves a little deeper...
T
he Gambling Commission’s Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB) is the regulator’s new source of statistics on gambling behaviour in Great Britain. After an experimental period, from the July 2024 release this data became, according to the Commission, the official (with a small “o”) source of statistics. It replaced the Commission’s previous telephone survey methodology with a “push-to-web” survey format. The GSGB has yet to received accredited status from the UK’s Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR), which would grant it the privilege of capital “O” Official Statistics.
The Gambling Commission asked the OSR to assess the GSGB against the Code of Practice for Statistics and the results of this process were published in February 2025. The Commission has now published its response to the OSR’s review. In its
26 AUGUST 2025
response, the Commission outlines its commitment to transparency and continuous improvement.
Critics of the GSGB (including your columnist!) have focussed on the significant discrepancies between its data on gambling participation and rates of problem gambling, compared with that found in other surveys and the industry’s own data. In particular, a headline estimated rate of problem gambling in the population of 2.5% in the GSGB is in stark contrast to rates estimated by surveys conducted by the NHS, and by the Commission using its previous methodology, which have ranged between around 0.2% to 0.4% during the past decade’s data. The Commission’s new push-to-web methodology is a probable cause of the discrepancy, likely eliciting a disproportionate number of survey responses from highly engaged gamblers. In its review, the OSR commended the
efforts of the Gambling Commission in developing and delivering the GSGB, but concluded that “significantly more work is needed”. It set out nine recommendations for improvement, including: • Improving user confidence by publishing a detailed plan to communicate how previous recommendations of Professor Sturgis will be actioned;
• Clearly communicating, within the statistical release, the potential biases that may affect the estimates;
• Investigating the coherence and comparability of the GSGB statistics with other relevant data such as the NHS Health Survey and newly published Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (APMS);
• Remaining open to receiving challenge. The Commission has now responded to the OSR’s review, setting out how it is actively implementing the recommendations. It has
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