Report
Gambling Survey for Great Britain - Annual report (2023): Official statistics
Gambling Survey for Great Britain - annual report (2023): Official statistics
Introduction
Background
The Gambling Commission is the national regulator of most forms of gambling in Great Britain. Its aim is to permit gambling provided it is consistent with its licensing objectives, which are to:
- prevent gambling from being a source of crime or disorder, being associated with crime or disorder or being used to support crime
- ensure that gambling is conducted in a fair and open way
- protect children and vulnerable people from being harmed or exploited by gambling.
The Commission’s work is underpinned by two main pieces of legislation: the Gambling Act 2005 (opens in new tab) which sets the framework for the regulation of gambling in Great Britain; and the National Lottery etc. Act 1993 which sets out the framework within which the Commission regulates the National Lottery.
Under section 26 of the Gambling Act 2005, the Commission has responsibility for collecting and disseminating information relating to the extent and impact of gambling in Great Britain. In order to do this, the Commission collects data on gambling behaviours via surveys of adults aged 18 years and over in Great Britain. The data is published as official statistics, that is produced in accordance with the standards set out by the Office for Statistics Regulation in the Code of Practice for Statistics (opens in new tab). Previously, a variety of data collection approaches have been used to meet this requirement: a bespoke study of gambling (British Gambling Prevalence Survey 2007 and 2010); by including questions on the Health Surveys for England, Scotland, and Wales1; and a quarterly telephone survey which supplemented the Health Surveys by providing a more regular measure of participation and problem gambling prevalence. The Commission has a separate programme of research for children and young people aged 11 to 17.
In December 2020, the Commission launched a consultation Participation and prevalence research - Gambling Commission to gather views on proposals to develop a single, high quality methodology to measure gambling behaviours. The aim was to have a more efficient, cost-effective data source providing robust and timely insight and the flexibility to swiftly provide information on emerging trends. The results of the consultation were published in June 2021 Consultation on gambling participation and problem gambling prevalence research - The Gambling Commission - Citizen Space (opens in new tab).
In October 2021 the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) and the University of Glasgow, working with Bryson Purdon Social Research were commissioned to take on the pilot project. This involved developing and testing a new push-to-web data collection methodology. Several national surveys have taken this approach of moving to push-to-web data collection, as a result of falling response rates on face-to-face data collection methods and their cost effectiveness. Findings from the pilot were published in May 2022 and are reported in Participation and Prevalence: Pilot methodology review report. The methodology was rolled out in summer 2022 for data collection under experimental statistics2, having identified its feasibility within the pilot phase.
Experimental statistics are a subset of newly developed or innovative official statistics undergoing evaluation: Experimental Statistics – Office for Statistics Regulation (opens in new tab). The experimental statistics phase involved 3 steps and was contracted to NatCen and the University of Glasgow. Step 1 tested the impact of household sample selection, with either a maximum of 2 adults invited to take part within a household or a maximum of 4 adults. Findings from this step indicated a maximum of 2 adults should be selected for the survey. Step 2 tested the use of different answer options on the newly developed questions on potentially negative consequences of gambling. Some participants were asked these questions with ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ answer options and some were asked these with ‘Often’, ‘Fairly often’, ‘Occasionally’ and ‘Never’ answer options. It was concluded that the four-point answer option should be used. Step 3 was a dress rehearsal of the new approach.
Two reports on findings from the experimental phase have been published. The first report covering steps 1 and 2 was published in April 2023 Gambling participation and the prevalence of problem gambling survey: Experimental statistics stage report and a further report, covering the final step, was published in November 2023 Gambling participation and the prevalence of problem gambling survey: Final experimental statistics stage (Step 3).
Following the success of step 3, the Commission launched the new Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB), which moved to its first year of continuous official statistics data collection in July 2023. This report presents results from the first period of official statistics data collection (Year 1; July 2023 to February 2024).
The timeline of GSGB development, starting with the consultation in 2020, is tracked on the Commission’s website: Development of the Gambling Survey for Great Britain.
Aims
The aims of the GSGB are to:
- collect data on a wide range of up-to-date gambling behaviours, including participation and adverse consequences of gambling
- provide a rolling programme of data collection to give the Commission the ability to gain timely insights and respond to emerging trends
- contribute to the evidence base on gambling behaviours and impacts, and help identify gaps and priorities
- produce and publish official statistics on gambling participation and prevalence statistics in accordance with the standards set out by the Office for Statistics Regulation in the Code of Practice for Statistics (opens in new tab).
Overview of survey design
The GSGB uses what is known as a push-to-web approach, in which individuals are first encouraged to take part online, completing a web questionnaire. Those who do not initially take part online are subsequently offered an alternative means of participation. In the GSGB this alternative is a paper questionnaire, sent by post. By offering an alternative, the survey includes people who are not online or who do not feel willing or able to go online to take part. The survey design is described in more detail in the technical report.
In the first year, the survey was designed to collect data from 10,000 individuals aged 18 years and over. This is lower than future years because the collection of continuous official statistics data did not start until July 2023. In the second year, data collection moved to a calendar year basis and the aim will be to collect data from 20,000 individuals annually.
Findings in this report are not directly comparable with previous surveys used for gambling statistics, such as the Health Surveys (HS) for England (opens in new tab) and Health Surveys (HS) for Scotland (opens in new tab) and the British Gambling Prevalence Survey (BGPS) series (opens in new tab) (PDF). This is because the new push-to-web methodology uses a different approach compared to the methodologies used in previous surveys. The findings in this report represent the first year of a new baseline against which future changes can be compared.
Future plans and availability of data
GSGB data is deposited at the UK Data Service (opens in new tab), within 6 months of publication of each annual report.
Interactive data will be available alongside publication of each annual report, via a Power BI dashboard (opens in new tab).
References
1These are large scale face-to-face population surveys where gambling questions are included approximately every two years.
2Now known as Official statistics in development - Office for Statistics Regulation (opens in new tab)
GSGB Annual report - Executive summary Next section
GSGB Annual report - Response to the survey
Last updated: 25 July 2024
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