Report
Gambling participation in 2019: behaviour, awareness and attitudes
A report providing an overview of consumer gambling behaviour in Great Britain in 2019
Contents
- Executive summary
- Preface
- Gambling participation
- Problem and at-risk gambling
- Online gambling behaviour
- Consumer analysis
- - Self-exclusion and gambling management tools
- - Information to players
- - Terms and conditions
- - Complaints
- - Social media and advertising
- - Social gaming
- Perceptions and attitudes
- Appendix – methodology
Information to players
The Commission’s online survey also contains questions asked to both gamblers and non-gamblers about wider gambling issues and topics of interest to consumers, including: self-exclusion and gambling management tools, information to players, terms and conditions, complaints, social media & advertising and social gaming. These are asked on a quarterly basis, biannually or annually depending on the nature of the questions.
This section covers gambling related materials produced by operators which may have either been directly sent to a customer or may form part of their general literature (i.e. tips to control gambling, where to seek help to control gambling). Gamblers were asked about what information they have seen and whether it had an impact on their gambling behaviour.
In total, 60% of gamblers had either received at least one piece of gambling related information from an operator or seen a piece of information online or inside/outside a gambling premises, which is similar to levels observed in 2018.
Figure 26: Proportion of gamblers who have either received or seen at least one piece of gambling related information from an operator (Online Tracker; n=3,138)
Data from the figure
- 60% - Received or seen gambling information from operators
- 40% - Not received or seen gambling information from operators
The information that respondents were most likely to have seen was in relation to your chance of winning a prize (43%, the same proportion as in 2018) and your chance of winning each prize (42%, the same proportion as 2018). There has been an increase in the proportion of respondents seeing information about where to seek help to control your gambling (40% a 2 percentage point increase from 2018), and a decrease in the proportion of respondents seeing information on whether a machine is random or compensated (6%, a 1 percentage point decrease from 2018).
Figure 27: Proportion of gamblers who have seen or received different types of information about gambling22 (Online Tracker; n=3,137)
| Percentage | |
|---|---|
| Your chance of winning a prize/amount of money | 43% |
| Your chance of winning each prize/amount of money | 42% |
| Where to seek help to control your gambling | 40% |
| How to control your gambling | 35% |
| Tools to help you control your gambling, such as setting time/money limits | 34% |
| Transaction and play history of your account | 33% |
| % of money returned to the player (RTP) | 18% |
| What the maximum payout for a machine is | 9% |
| What the maximum payout for a machine is | 6% |
All those who have seen ‘percentage of money returned to player’, ‘your chances of winning any prize’, ‘your chances of winning each prize’, ‘whether a machine is random or compensated’ or ‘what the maximum pay-out for a machine is’ were asked at what point they consulted the information they had seen. In total, 55% said that they consulted the information before play and 24% consulted the information after play, both stable compared to the previous year.
Figure 28: Time of consulting the information seen (Online Tracker; n=740)
| Percentage | |
|---|---|
| Before you play | 37% |
| After you've played | 6% |
| Both | 18% |
| Never | 39% |
In terms of the information provided by gambling companies, tools to help you control your gambling (such as setting time/money limits) had the biggest impact on reducing the frequency of respondents’ gambling.
Figure 29: Impact on frequency of gambling based upon information received from gambling companies (Online Tracker; bases vary from n=990-1,198 for each of the four information options)
| Stopped gambling | Decrease | Increase | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tools to help you control your gambling, such as setting time/money limits | 4% | 20% | 6% |
| Transaction and play history for your account | 4% | 17% | 6% |
| Information on where to seek help for your gambling | 3% | 12% | 5% |
| Tips to control your gambling | 3% | 16% | 7% |
There have been observed decreases in the proportion of respondents saying that the information caused them to increase their gambling frequency for the following information types: ‘Information on where to seek help for your gambling’ (5%; a 3 percentage point decrease from 2018), ‘Transaction and play history for your account’ (6%; a 4 percentage point decrease from 2018) and ‘Tools to help you control your gambling, such as setting time/money limits’ (6%; a 4 percentage point decrease from 2018).
Figure 30: Impact on the amount spent on gambling based upon information received from gambling companies (Online tracker; bases vary from n=990-1,198 for each of the four information options)
| Stopped gambling | Decrease | Increase | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tools to help you control your gambling, such as setting time/money limits | 4% | 21% | 6% |
| Transaction and play history for your account | 2% | 19% | 6% |
| Information on where to seek help for your gambling | 3% | 12% | 6% |
| Tips to control your gambling | 3% | 17% | 6% |
A significant decline can be seen in the proportion of respondents saying that they had increased their gambling spend as a result of receiving information, across all four types of information to receive.
References
22 ‘Transaction and play history of your account’ is asked to online players only. ‘What the maximum payout for a machine is’ and ‘Whether a machine is random or compensated’ are asked to machine players only.
Self-exclusion and gambling management tools Next section
Terms and conditions
Last updated: 22 February 2022
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