New data and updates for the Gambling Survey for Great Britain
Our Director of Research and Statistics Ben Haden discusses the latest wave of participation data for the Gambling Survey for Great Britain and provides an update on the next steps.
Posted 19 September 2024 by Ben Haden
Last week saw the latest publication of participation data for the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB). It covers a nationally representative sample of 5,191 adults aged 18 and over who were interviewed during the period January 2024 to April 2024 and makes up the first quarter of participation figures for year two of the GSGB. You can read the full details for this latest wave of data on the GSGB hub of our website.
The headline figures show that overall participation in any gambling activity (in the past 4 weeks) was 48 percent, the same proportion that was observed throughout 2023. The online gambling participation rate (in the past four weeks) was 38 percent, which falls to 16 percent when those who only play in lottery draws are removed from the data. And the in-person gambling participation rate (in the past four weeks) was 29 percent, which falls to 18 percent when excluding lottery draw only players.
There is of course a wealth of further data to be examined and I would encourage everyone reading this to go and have an explore for themselves. We’re a couple of months on from the release of our first Annual Report for GSGB and one of the great things that I and the team at the Commission have seen since then is the number of people in the research community, the gambling sector and even more widely, starting to explore and get to grips with what the wealth of data we now have can tell us.
For the first time we can delve down to the national and regional levels in terms of participation. And we have data detailing the positive impacts of gambling people experience as part of our official statistics – not just a picture of the risks and consequences.
Making the Gambling Survey for Great Britain the best it can be
When I hosted the webinar for the launch of the annual report, I asked attendees to come forward and engage with their perspectives on GSGB – where they have their own data that is consistent or where it isn’t, so we can understand why not. I’m grateful to those in the gambling sector and beyond who have reached out to us constructively. We will look to compile this and report back in future, in the same transparent way we’ve conducted the development of the GSGB.
We want your feedback – it’s a normal part of the process of continually developing official statistics – and alongside the recommendations of Professor Sturgis – they will help us make the GSGB even stronger going forwards. Once again – do share your data with us soon, so it can be a part of this package of work.
We’ve also outlined how we intend to implement Professor Sturgis's recommendations on our website, and today an Invitation to Tender has been published inviting proposals from suppliers to undertake further work relating to the first three recommendations in his report. We look forward to the findings from this additional research.
Feedback is welcome. But whilst we will continue to work hard on refining the GSGB where we need to, I am excited that we are only at the beginning of what this is the start for us in terms of how we will be able to make changes using the GSGB. The more research and work that is done using the regular data that the GSGB provides - at scale and high quality – the more we will see its value.
This is also why we are taking the misuse of official statistics so seriously as well. We have and will continue to take action wherever we see misuse of our official statistics. And if you have any questions about this I would invite you to have a look at the guidance on using our official statistics we published earlier in the Summer.
Better data leads to better regulation
The Gambling Survey for Great Britain is the largest participation and prevalence survey of its kind in the world and it has rightfully taken its place as the Commission’s Official Statistics in this area, where along with other data sources we are investigating like more detailed operator data and open banking data we will continue to build a rounded robust evidence base. I look forward to engaging with many of you over what the GSGB tells us in the future and on debating what we can do with the new information it gives us.