Developing a mini-screen for problem gambling

During 2009 and 2010, the Gambling Commission trialled inclusion of problem gambling screens in a telephone omnibus survey. Both full problem gambling screens and a ‘mini-screen’ were included. The purpose of including a mini-screen in this survey was to ascertain whether it could provide a reliable and robust, cost-effective, way of measuring problem gambling prevalence in the British general population, and to track any emerging trends.

We appointed Dr Rachel Volberg (Gemini Research) and Professor Robert Williams (University of Lethbridge) to undertake analysis of the data, report on their findings, and make recommendations on future direction.

The aim of this project was to provide us, and our stakeholders, with a view on feasibility and suitability of including the trialled PGSI problem gambling mini-screen in an omnibus or general population survey as a method of tracking problem gambling prevalence rates in the general population.

The outcome of this piece of work will inform and support the wider work currently being undertaken by us and the Responsible Gambling Strategy Board on future approaches to collecting adult gambling prevalence data in the British context.

Based on the recommendations of this project, the problem gambling mini-screen will continue to be piloted in our telephone omnibus surveys for the four quarters of 2012 (March, June, September and December).

You can read the full report here: Developing a Short Form of the PGSI

Page last reviewed: March 2012