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Gambling Survey for Great Britain - Year 2 (2024), wave 3 report
Published: 27 February 2025
Last updated: 14 April 2025
This version was printed or saved on: 2 May 2025
Online version: https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/report/gambling-survey-for-great-britain-year-2-2024-wave-3-report-official
This report contains detail of the response rates achieved and weighting strategy for Year 2 Wave 3 of the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB), which was carried out between 1st July 2024 and 13th October 2024.
Detail on the background to the survey, the methodology, sampling strategy, and questionnaire content are provided in the Gambling Survey for Great Britain - technical report.
Data tables are provided in Statistics on gambling participation – Year 2 (2024), wave 3 .
Table A.1: (Address-level response) summarises the address-level response rates.
In total, 18,777 addresses were issued. In remote surveys (that is where participants complete the survey independently without any involvement from an interviewer), no information is known about the reason for non-response in individual addresses. However, it was assumed that around 9 percent of addresses in the sample (1,690) were not residential and were therefore ineligible to complete the survey1.
In total, 3,218 addresses were productive. The adjusted address-level response rate, that is the proportion of eligible addresses where a questionnaire was completed by at least one adult, was 19 percent (lower than the target of 22 percent). There was no response from 13,842 addresses and a further 27 addresses had an individual contact the office to say they did not wish or were unable to take part.
| Response of issued addresses | Total addresses (number) | Total addresses (percentage) | Total eligible (percentage) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Issued addresses | 18,777 | 100% | Not applicable |
| Assumed ineligible | 1,690 | 9% | Not applicable |
| Assumed eligible (residential addresses) | 17,087 | 91% | 100% |
| Refusal or unable to take part | 27 | 0% | 0% |
| No response | 13,842 | 74% | 81% |
| Productive addresses | 3,218 | 17% | 19% |
Table A.2: (Address-level response, by country and Government Office Region) shows the breakdown of the issued sample in England, Scotland, and Wales, and English regions and the household response rate in each country and region. In total, 86 percent of the issued addresses were in England, 9 percent in Scotland and 5 percent in Wales. The household response rate was 19 percent in England, 20 percent in Scotland and 18 percent in Wales. in English regions2, highest response rates were achieved in the South West, South East and Yorkshire and the Humber (21 percent) and the lowest in London (16 percent).
| Country/Government office region | Total issued addresses (number) | Total issued addresses (percentage) | Total assumed eligible addresses (number) | Total assumed eligible addresses (percentage) | Total productive addresses (number) | Household response rate (percentage) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| England | 16,111 | 86% | 14,661 | 86% | 2,752 | 19% |
| North East | 810 | 4% | 737 | 4% | 132 | 18% |
| North West | 2,176 | 12% | 1,980 | 12% | 363 | 18% |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | 1,592 | 8% | 1,449 | 8% | 305 | 21% | East Midlands | 1,394 | 7% | 1,269 | 7% | 231 | 18% | West Midlands | 1,647 | 9% | 1,499 | 9% | 258 | 17% | East of England | 1,791 | 10% | 1,630 | 10% | 299 | 18% | London | 2,401 | 13% | 2,185 | 13% | 342 | 16% | South East | 2,609 | 14% | 2,374 | 14% | 497 | 21% | South West | 1,691 | 9% | 1,539 | 9% | 325 | 21% | Scotland | 1,734 | 9% | 1,578 | 9% | 311 | 20% |
| Wales | 932 | 5% | 848 | 5% | 155 | 18% |
| All addresses | 18,777 | 100% | 17,087 | 100% | 3218 | 19% |
Following the process of removing duplicate responses3, cases deemed to have completed the online questionnaire too quickly to have properly engaged with the questions and cases above the maximum 2 completions per household4, it was assumed that all responses in the dataset were from 4,675 unique individuals who had completed the questionnaire.
In total, 44 percent of the responding unweighted sample were male, and 56 percent were female, as shown in Table A.3: (Individual-level response, by sex and age). This under-representation of males is similar to that seen in the latest published results for other surveys with the same completion modes, for example, the British Social Attitudes (BSA) 2022 survey - BSA 40 Technical details (natcen.ac.uk) (opens in new tab)(pdf). In total, 44 percent of the BSA 2022 unweighted main sample were male and 56 percent female.
Those in the youngest age group were the least likely to take part: 6 percent of responding adults were aged 18 to 24, whereas this age group makes up 10 percent of the adult population of Great Britain. Conversely, 17 percent of responding adults were aged 65 to 74, whereas this group makes up 12 percent of the population. (Table A.3: Individual-level response, by age and sex).
This difference in taking part was particularly pronounced for male participants: 5 percent of the male sample were aged 18 to 24 years (this age-sex group makes up 11 percent of the male adult population of Great Britain). The equivalent proportions for females aged 18 to 24 years were 7 percent and 10 percent. The national percentages are based on the 2023 mid-year population estimates for Great Britain: Estimates of the population for the UK, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) (opens in a new tab).
| Age group (years) | Total participants: male (percentage) | Total participants: female (percentage) | Total participants: all (percentage) | Total Great Britain population: adult males (percentage) | Total Great Britain population: adult females (percentage) | Total Great Britain population: all adults (percentage) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 to 24 | 5% | 7% | 6% | 11% | 10% | 11% | 25 to 34 | 13% | 18% | 16% | 17% | 17% | 17% | 35 to 44 | 17% | 17% | 17% | 17% | 17% | 17% | 45 to 54 | 14% | 15% | 15% | 16% | 16% | 16% | 55 to 64 | 17% | 16% | 17% | 16% | 16% | 16% | 65 to 74 | 18% | 16% | 17% | 12% | 12% | 12% | 75 plus | 15% | 11% | 12% | 11% | 13% | 12% | All participants | 44% | 56% | 100% | 48% | 52% | 100% | Unweighted bases (number) | 2,064 | 2,602 | 4,666 | 25,521,421 | 27,191,262 | 52,712,683 |
Table A.4: (Individual response, by mode of completion and sex) shows response rates by mode of completion, overall and for males and females separately. Overall, 68 percent (3,1585) completed the survey online and 32 percent (1,5176) completed a postal questionnaire. These results are broadly in line with expectations, based one development stages of the GSGB.
| Sex | Individual-level response: Online completions (percentage) | Individual-level response: Postal completions (percentage) | Individual-level response: Total completions (percentage) | Individual-level response: Total completions (number) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Males | 67% | 33% | 44% | 2,064 |
| Females | 68% | 32% | 56% | 2,604 |
| All participants | 68% | 32% | 100% | 4,668 |
| Unweighted bases (number) | 3,155 | 1,513 | 4,668 | 4,668 |
There was little difference between males and females in the mode of completion. In all age groups, except the oldest two (aged 65 to 74 and aged 75 and over), a higher proportion of participants completed the survey online than filled in the postal questionnaire. In total, 51 percent of those aged 65 to 74 and 35 percent of those aged 75 and over completed the survey online compared with between 62 percent and 88 percent of those in the younger age groups as shown in Table A.5: (Individual-level response, by mode of completion and age).
| Age group (years) | Individual-level response: Online completions (percentage) | Individual-level response: Postal completions (percentage) | Individual-level response: Total completions (number) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18 to 24 | 86% | 14% | 302 |
| 25 to 34 | 88% | 12% | 735 |
| 35 to 44 | 83% | 17% | 779 |
| 45 to 54 | 75% | 25% | 682 |
| 55 to 64 | 62% | 38% | 788 |
| 65 to 74 | 51% | 49% | 806 |
| 75 plus | 35% | 65% | 581 |
| All participants | 68% | 32% | 4,673 |
| Unweighted bases (number) | 3,157 | 1,516 | 4,673 |
The mode of survey completion was similar for those who participated in gambling in the past 4 weeks and those who did not, with 71 percent of those who participated in gambling in the past 4 weeks completing the survey online and 66 percent of those who did not, as shown in Table A.6: (Individual-level response, by mode of completion and gambling participation in the past 4 weeks).
| Gambling prevalence in the past 4 weeks | Individual-level response: Online completions (percentage) | Individual-level response: Postal completions (percentage) | Individual-level response: Total completions (number) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gambled in the past 4 weeks | 71% | 29% | 2,209 |
| Not gambled in the past 4 weeks | 66% | 34% | 2,409 |
| Unweighted bases (number) | 3,152 | 1,466 | 4,618 |
1When estimating the proportion of ineligible addresses on an online survey, it is best practice to assume the same ineligibility rate as a recent face-to-face survey which uses the same sample frame and sampling approach and for which detailed outcomes are known for the entire issued sample. Ineligibility rates in Postcode Address File (PAF) face-to-face surveys tend to fall between 8 percent and 10 percent and 9 percent is the rate recorded in the most recent face-to-face British Social Attitudes Survey (2019) and so has been used as an appropriate default for this survey.
2Regions are shown only for England because the sample is so big, and the Scotland and Wales samples are equivalent to the size of an English region.
3Where a single participant completed the survey a second time.
4Where more than 2 people in a household completed the survey (for example, 2 completing the survey online and 2 different people completing postal questionnaires.
5Including 3 participants where sex could not be derived.
6Including 4 participants where sex could not be derived.
Table A.7 (Online questionnaire completion time, by gambling status in the past 4 weeks) shows the online questionnaire completion time. The aim was for the online questionnaire to take an average of 20 minutes to complete. The mean time taken was 22 minutes: 24 minutes for those who had gambled in the past 4 weeks and 20 minutes for those who had not gambled in the past 4 weeks. The median time taken was lower than the mean: 16 minutes for all participants, 17 minutes for those who had gambled in the past 4 weeks and 14 minutes for those who had not gambled in the past 4 weeks1.
| Gambling prevalence in the past 4 weeks | Mean (minutes) | Median (minutes) |
|---|---|---|
| All participants completing online | 22 | 16 |
| Gambled in the past 4 weeks | 24 | 17 |
| Not gambled in the past 4 weeks | 20 | 14 |
| Unweighted bases (number) | 3,130 | 3,130 |
1Participant’s completion times were calculated by summing the time taken to answer each question that they answered, but with the time for each question capped at the high outlier value for that question.
The data was weighted to take account of non-response, bias, and improve representativeness. As there was no disproportionate sampling, selection weights were not required. The weighting method consisted of 2 stages:
A logistic regression model for number of responses within a household (run for households with more than one eligible adult).
A calibration to population estimates.
For the first stage, forward and backward stepwise logistic regression models were used to test which variables were predictive of the number of responses within a household. These models were run only for households with more than one eligible adult. Area-level variables (from the 2021 census for England and Wales and the 2011 census for Scotland) and household-level variables were tested. Where both a household level and area level version of a given characteristic was available, the household-level version was used, for example, if household income and Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) were both predictive of the number of responses, only household income was used. The final regression model included all variables that were significant in the stepwise regressions these were; percentage of owner occupiers in the area, number of children in the household, household tenure, household income, population density, percentage of persons who are economically active in the area. Region of residence was also included in the model to control for any regional differences in survey response.
The predicted probabilities from this model were used to create response weights for households with more than one eligible adult. The weight was checked for outliers and left untrimmed. The weight for responding households with only one eligible adult was set to one.
The response weight was then calibrated to estimates of the eligible population, that is, residents of Great Britain aged 18 years and over. Calibration weighting adjusts the weight so that characteristics of the weighted achieved sample match population estimates, reducing bias. The following variables were included in the calibration: age categories by sex, region, IMD percentiles (quintiles for England and bitiles for Wales and Scotland), tenure, and ethnicity.
Estimates of the Great Britain population by age, sex, and region of residence were taken from Office for National Statistics (ONS) mid-year population estimates, which were for 2023 in the UK (Population estimates for the UK, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland - Office for National Statistics (opens in new tab).
Population estimates for IMD percentiles within each country were taken from ONS England and Wales (opens in new tab) and National Records of Scotland (opens in new tab). Population estimates for tenure and ethnicity were taken from the most recent Labour Force Survey (opens in new tab) data available, which was gathered between January and March 2024.
After calibration, the weight was checked for outliers and left untrimmed. The final weight for the 4,675 productive individuals has a design effect of 1.25, an effective sample size of 3,728, and efficiency of 81 percent.