UK LEGAL COMMENT
“Better data will lead to better
regulation”
As The Gambling Commission publishes data from the final step in the “experimental stage” of its new Gambling Survey for Great Britain, Northridge Law’s Melanie Ellis examines whether the Commission’s new approach really is “better”.
T
he Gambling Commission has published data from the final step in the “experimental stage” of its new Gambling Survey for Great Britain, with the headline “better data will lead to better regulation”. However, with the findings from this latest survey
showing results which in some cases differ hugely from findings in other surveys, it must be questioned whether the Commission’s new approach really is “better”. In particular, the new data reveals an alarming estimate for
the problem gambling rate at 2.5% of the population, with 14% showing some risk of harm. These are not yet official statistics and the Commission intends to discuss the findings from this stage with potential users and stakeholders. However, eventually the results from this new survey methodology will become official statistics (from late 2024) and replace both the Commission’s quarterly telephone surveys and the gambling questions in the Government’s Health Surveys. Other data points from the new survey include the reasons people took part in gambling (the chance to win or make money being most popular, followed by to have fun) and how they felt about their last gambling experience (a neutral mid-point between ‘hated it’ and ‘loved it’ was selected by 37.2% of respondents, but of the other options ratings above this mid-point were chosen by 43.5% while ratings below the mid-point were selected by 19.2%). The Commission is at pains to point out, in a blog post by
head of statistics Helen Bryce introducing the latest survey data, that the results “should not be compared to previous figures”. These previous figures presumably include the problem gambling rates found in the Commission’s own quarterly telephone survey, which most recently found a rate of 0.2%, the Government’s Health Survey, which gives a 0.3% figure from the PGSI screen, and the pilot of this new Gambling Survey, which found a rate of 1.3%. Rather than taking the view that the latest data indicates a
rise in problem gambling rates which it must address through better regulation, the Commission sees the new survey as a “establish[ing] a new baseline against which we can track changes in gambling behaviour in Great Britain in the future”. However, the information revealed by this survey can’t be ignored. It must either be the case that previous surveys have severely underestimated the problem gambling rate, or there are serious issues with the new methodology. Before proceeding with the new methodology, the Commission must address why this data differs so significantly from other recent findings.
Differences from the Commission’s telephone surveys There are some key changes in methodology between the Commission’s program of quarterly telephone surveys, compared to the new survey. The format of the survey is the obvious difference and it might well be the case that respondents are reluctant to admit to issues with their gambling on a telephone call, particularly if family members are listening in, compared to in a self-completion survey. The telephone survey also relies on the PGSI mini screen, which asks respondents just three of the full set of nine questions, which will inevitably lead to variations in results. Other than the problem gambling rate, other data points from the latest telephone survey (year to March 2023) give reasonably
26 DECEMBER 2023
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