News

This latest gambling participation data collected through quarterly telephone and online surveys and problem gambling data from the Health survey for England, Scottish health survey, and our Welsh problem gambling survey has been published.

Overall  gambling participation has remained stable compared to 2017 with 46% of respondents aged 16+ having participated in at least one form of gambling in the past four weeks in 2018 (45% in 2017).

Those participating in gambling were more likely to be aged between either 55-64 (55%) or 45-54 (52%), however if we exclude National Lottery draw only participation, those in the age group 25-34 had the highest participation level (40%).

Among online gamblers, laptops and mobile phones remain the most popular method of accessing gambling online in 2018. Mobile phone use for gambling purposes significantly increased (44%, up from 39% in 2017), whilst laptop use significantly declined (45%, down 5% from 2017).

Awareness of self-exclusion among gamblers is 47%.  Overall, 6% of gamblers had ever self-excluded and a further 41% hadn’t self-excluded but were aware of it.

According to our latest Combined Health Survey (2016), an estimated 0.7% people aged 16+ were classified as problem gamblers.

In response to a question used to ascertain how important the public felt that various gambling regulatory measures are, most people said having controls in place to ensure that children and young people are not exposed to gambling was the most important.

In early March we wrote to LAs, advising them to start to prepare for their annual return covering the period 1 April 2018– 31 March 2019.  A further reminder letter will be sent at the end of March advising LAs that the portal opens on 1 April and providing details of the online portal and your Passcode.  Please remember that the Passcode will only work with a registered user email address.  The Passcode is specific to your LA not to an individual so multiple email addresses can be registered per LA, but we would encourage you to register your licensing@ email address, if you have not already done so.

A report analysing the returns will be published later in the year and an accompanying Excel spreadsheet which enables you to compare your authority with others across Great Britain.

We were delighted that all 380 LAs submitted their returns and contributed to the report last year but a small number needed repeated chasing culminating in having to contact CEOs directly. Submitting the data is a statutory obligation, and failure to submit within this timescale will result in the matter being escalated.

Please contact your local compliance manager if you have not received any correspondence about the annual returns.