Investigating the coherence and comparability of estimates from the GSGB with industry data from the Bingo Association

Introduction

The Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB) is a core part of the Commission’s evidence base to help understand people’s gambling behaviours in Great Britain. As a relatively new source of data and in line with our approach of assessing multiple sources of data to develop a well rounded and robust evidence base for decision making, it is important to study the estimates from the GSGB alongside other sources of data on people’s gambling behaviours.

Following the publication of the first annual report from the GSGB in July 2024 and subsequent wave specific publications, we were approached by the Bingo Association (opens in new tab) who highlighted some differences between their own data on admissions to Bingo clubs in Great Britain and estimates from GSGB. As a result, we set about investigating the coherence and comparability of the estimates from the GSGB with the industry data.

Working collaboratively with the Bingo Association, we compared the data to try and understand reasons for the differences. We designed a new question for the GSGB which was added to the survey in January 2025¹, with the aim of creating a closer comparison with the Bingo Association’s data.

This report first gives an overview of the bingo sector and then explores the differences between the GSGB findings and data supplied by the Bingo Association, explaining what we did to improve comparability between the data sources. As the Bingo Association is the trade body representing licensed bingo clubs in Great Britain, this report primarily focuses on the land-based bingo sector (in essence, bingo played in-person at a venue).

Additionally, this work aligns with the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) review of the GSGB (opens in new tab), which included a recommendation ‘to investigate the coherence and comparability of GSGB statistics with other relevant data’. This exercise directly supports that recommendation.

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¹ Question wording on the GSGB: 'You mentioned that you have spent money playing bingo at a venue in the past 4 weeks, where did you play?'

How we define bingo

As set out in our Bingo sector guidance, there are 3 fundamental principles of bingo, namely:

• "bingo must be played as an equal chance game." Essentially, all players must have the same chance of winning
• "bingo must involve a degree of participation." For example, players marking their cards, or claiming to have won
• "bingo games must have a clearly defined end point." The end of the game should be clearly communicated to players.

Generally, bingo can be played anywhere, however when bingo is provided to players for commercial gain in Great Britain, a licence from the Gambling Commission is needed. Unlike online bingo, licences for bingo played at a venue aren’t always needed, including bingo for fundraising² which can be played at school halls, places of worship and community spaces.

In instances where a bingo licence is needed at a bingo venue, this could include (but is not limited to) places such as traditional bingo clubs, high street bingo venues, holiday parks, and working men’s clubs³.

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² Read our guide on how to run bingo legally in our Bingo sector guidance.

³ See more on when a non-remote bingo operating licence is needed.

What the landscape of land-based (or in-person) bingo looks like

During the reporting period from April 2024 to March 2025, our industry statistics showed that Gross Gambling Yield (GGY) from land-based bingo was higher than that from online bingo. While online bingo generated £165.6 million, land-based bingo generated £650.4 million in GGY. However, of this £650.4 million from land-based bingo, £226.4 million is from bingo games and £424.0 million is generated by gaming machines in bingo premises.

A similar pattern was seen in our GSGB (2024) statistics, which showed that adults were more likely to participate in bingo in-person than online in the past 4 weeks (3.3 percent and 2.5 percent respectively). These findings suggest that playing bingo in-person at a venue is more popular than online bingo.

Our Investigating the relationship between reasons for gambling and different gambling activities research shows distinct differences in the motivations for gambling between those who played bingo online and those who participated in-person. Social motivations for participating in gambling (that is, gambling for fun or excitement) were the only significant reasons among those who participated in bingo in-person, no other reasons per the research were significant. This suggests that people who gamble for reasons other than social reasons were less likely to play bingo in person.

Building on these social motivations for playing Bingo, there has been a rise of novel in-person bingo formats, such as Bongo’s Bingo, which blends traditional bingo with a party atmosphere, and previous initiatives like Spingo, introduced by Mecca, which combined exercise with bingo to create a fun, social experience. These examples indicate that bingo played in-person is becoming more diversified, expanding beyond traditional bingo clubs and potentially attracting a new cohort of players.

What the data supplied by the Bingo Association tells us

As the trade body representing licensed bingo premises, the Bingo Association hold information on the number of admissions to licenced Bingo clubs in Great Britain. Admissions data was used to estimate participation in in-person bingo among all adults in Great Britain over the past 4 weeks. This was done by dividing the average number of admissions over a 4 week period by the monthly frequency of visits to bingo venues, yielding an implied number of unique players per 4 week period. This figure was then divided by census population estimates to calculate the proportion of adults participating.

Unlike the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB), which reported that 3.3 percent of adults had played bingo in-person in the past 4 weeks, the Bingo Association data showed a lower figure of 1.0 percent. However, the estimated frequency of visits to bingo clubs was similar across both sources, at 2.3 visits per month (GSGB)⁴ and 2.5 visits per month (Bingo Association) (as shown in Table 1).

Table 1: Differences for bingo in-person participation

Table 1: Differences for bingo in-person participation

Criteria	Gambling Commission (GSGB), 2024	Bingo Association, 2024
Past 4 week participation amongst adults aged 18 and over (percentage)	3.3%	1.0%
Frequency of visits to bingo venues per month (number)	2.3	2.5

Why could these differences be present?

The Bingo Association collects data from their members on the number of admissions to traditional bingo clubs and have used this to calculate the implied number of players per average 4-week period. In 2024, their data was drawn from 86 percent of large land-based operators in Great Britain and focuses solely on admissions to traditional bingo clubs. In addition, an admission is only counted as such when a player is visiting to play a game of traditional bingo, and not if they were attending to take part in one of the more social games of Bingo such as Bonkers Bingo organised by Mecca. Where data was missing or incomplete, the Bingo Association modelled the remaining 14 percent using responses from other operators who completed that section.

In contrast, the GSGB collects data through a self-completion survey⁵, asking respondents whether they have played bingo in-person during the past 4 weeks⁶. As the survey is self-completed, responses will reflect a consumer’s understanding of what constitutes a bingo venue. Unlike the Bingo Association’s data, which focuses solely on traditional clubs, the GSGB may capture a broader range of in-person bingo activity.

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⁴ The frequency of bingo club visits was calculated only for respondents in the GSGB who reported playing bingo in person during the past 4 weeks.

⁵ Read more about our GSGB methodology in the Gambling Survey for Great Britain - technical report.

⁶ Question wording on the GSGB: 'During the past 4 weeks, how often, if at all, have you spent money playing bingo at a venue e.g. a bingo club, social club?...'

What we did to create a closer comparison

To enable a closer comparison between the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB) and the Bingo Association data, we worked under the assumption that any differences could be attributed to the Bingo Association primarily collecting data from traditional bingo clubs, while the GSGB captures a broader range of in-person bingo activity.

To address this, we adapted our data collection approach. Specifically, we introduced a new question in the GSGB survey asking those respondents who said they had played bingo in a venue in the past 4 weeks, where they had played. The response options included:

• bingo club (for example, Buzz Bingo, formerly Gala, Mecca, Club 3000, Castle Bingo)
• working men’s club or social club
• holiday park (for example, Butlins, Park Resort, Parkdean resorts)
• bingo themed social event (not in a bingo club) for example, Bongo’s Bingo
• a fundraising event (for example, community centre, village hall, school event)
• bar or pub
• workplace or corporate event
• holiday resort or hotel abroad
• in an arcade including high street and seaside arcades
• other.

By doing this, we were able to identify the proportion of respondents who had played bingo in traditional bingo clubs in the past 4 weeks, allowing us to make a closer comparison with the Bingo Association’s data.

What did the data show when we created a closer comparison?

With the addition of a new question in the GSGB, respondents were asked where they had played bingo in the past 4 weeks. With 3 waves of data now available to us, the GSGB estimated that 1.2 percent of adults had played at a traditional bingo club in the past 4 weeks, followed by participation at a working men’s club (0.6 percent) and at a bingo themed social event (0.4 percent) as shown in Figure 1. The figure for participation at a traditional bingo club (1.2 percent) now more closely aligned with the data collected by the Bingo Association.

Figure 1: Proportion of adults who played bingo at the following venue(s) in the past 4 weeks (GSGB 2025, Waves 1 to 3)

Figure 1: Proportion of adults who played bingo at the following venue(s) in the past four weeks (GSGB 2025, Waves 1 to 3)

Bingo venue	Proportion of adults playing at the bingo venue in the past 4 weeks (percentage)
Bingo club (for example, Buzz Bingo, formerly Gala, Mecca, Club 3000, Castle Bingo)	1.2%
Working men’s club or social club	0.6%
Bingo themed social event (not in a bingo club) for example, Bongo’s Bingo	0.4%
Bar or Pub	0.4%
At a fundraising event (for example, community centre, village hall, school event)	0.4%
Holiday park (for example Butlins, Park Resort, Parkdean resorts)	0.3%
Holiday resort or hotel abroad	0.2%
Other	0.1%
In an arcade including high street and seaside arcades	0.1%

Fieldwork for GSGB 2025, Waves 1 to 3, took place between January to October 2025, where this question was asked only online.

Base size approximately: 10,323

Of course the places where people play bingo are not mutually exclusive. Findings show that of those who had played bingo in a traditional bingo club in the past 4 weeks (base size 133), 26 percent had also played bingo somewhere else during the same timeframe.

What these findings tell us about the GSGB statistics and Bingo Association data overall

These findings show that the initial discrepancies between the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB) statistics and the Bingo Association data were largely driven by methodological differences - specifically, variations in what was being measured and how those measurements were conducted.

By introducing a targeted question to the GSGB, we observed that participation rates for bingo played in-person (at a traditional bingo club) in the past 4 weeks were similar: 1.2 percent in the GSGB and 1.0 percent in the Bingo Association data.

Overall, this exercise has helped to validate the GSGB estimates against industry data held by the Bingo Association and has increased our mutual understanding of the bingo landscape. The addition of a new question to the GSGB – developed to identify where consumers play in-person bingo – enhances its utility. This helps the Commission, from a regulatory perspective, as well as other interested stakeholders, to stay informed and identify emerging trends with the bingo landscape.

What's next?

Following collaborative discussions with the Bingo Association, the Commission will continue to monitor trends relating to in-person bingo. Through the collection of further waves of data, and therefore a larger sample size, we will be able to conduct more detailed analysis of the newly added bingo question. In particular, this will enable us to compare the demographic profile of people playing in-person bingo in different places. The Commission will share insights from this work and continue its collaboration with the Bingo Association.

As part of our commitment to continuous improvement, we also welcome engagement from other interested parties who wish to undertake a similar exercise.

Please get in touch via: statistics@gamblingcommission.gov.uk