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  3. Illegal online gambling - Phase 3: Understanding push factors for consumer engagement with illegal gambling websites

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Illegal online gambling - Phase 3: Understanding push factors for consumer engagement with illegal gambling websites

The Gambling Commission's research into consumer engagement with the illegal online gambling market.

Published
20 October 2026

Last updated
20 October 2026 - Changes

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Contents

Appendix B - Focus group discussion guide

Interview structure

  1. Introduction & warm-up, alongside pre task exploration (20 mins)
  2. Push factor deep dive (45 mins)
  3. The role of gambling companies and regulation (45 mins)
  4. Final questions and summary, alongside thank and close (10 mins)

Research and interview objectives:

During the focus group session, we deep-dived further into participants' experiences and perceptions of the gambling market. In particular, focusing on the following.

Session introduction and context: Explaining the session's purpose, introducing the moderator(s) and stakeholders, and allowing participants to get to know one another and introduce themselves.

Gambling motivations and experiences: Understanding participants' general behaviors and introducing the topic of unlicensed sites.

Reactions to push factors: Exploring participant reactions, understanding which resonate most and why, and identifying which may motivate them to use an unlicensed site.

Attitudes towards gambling companies and gambling regulation and/or The Commission: Understanding awareness of these entities and unpicking their perceived roles and responsibilities when it comes to the use of unlicensed websites.

Session wrap-up: Collecting final thoughts from participants and allowing time for observers to ask any questions.

1. Introduction, warm-up and pre-task exploration (20 mins)

Aim: to explain the purpose of the research session, get to know the participant(s) and warm them up to the discussion. To understand participants' gambling motivations and experiences, and to introduce the topic of unlicensed sites.

(Introduce moderator and Yonder.)

This session is on behalf of The Gambling Commission who is looking to better understand your experiences when it comes to using online gambling sites.

We’re going to be presenting you with a range of different scenarios and we’re looking to understand how and whether or not, they fit in with your experience, perceptions, and engagement with the gambling sector.

There are no right or wrong answers and everything you say will remain anonymous - none of your personal details will be used in reporting

The session will last 2 hours

Participation is voluntary. You can withdraw your participation research including the pre task, and the focus group at any time by emailing (email here).

Any questions?

To start, it would be great to get to know each other better. Let’s go round the room and can everyone introduce themselves and tell us…

  • Your name
  • Where do you live and who with?
  • What form of online gambling you typically participate in, e.g. sports betting, casino games, scratch cards, playing the nationally lottery.
  • What do you enjoy most about gambling and why?

Pre-task recap:

In the pre-task we asked you to reflect on several aspects…

One such area was your motivations regarding gambling. As a group, can we share some thoughts about what attracts you to online gambling sites?

Prompt: entertainment, potential winnings, social aspect, peer recommendation, media exposure, advertising and so on.

Tell me how you come across or hear about online gambling sites

Prompt: family and/or friend and/or peer recommendation, online forums, private groups, advertising, news or wider media coverage.

(Moderator to listen out for any references to advertising related to websites ‘not on Gamstop’ and/or those advertised as on Gamstop.)

What makes these sources trustworthy or worth listening to? What about them is compelling?

We also mentioned unlicensed sites as part of the pre-task and webinar. As a reminder, these are gambling websites that do not have a licence to operate in Great Britain.

We selected you for this research on the basis that you may have used one, either intentionally or accidentally. We want to assure that individuals who gamble with unlicensed websites are not doing anything wrong. We are just interested in learning about your experiences for the purpose of this research.

Who here thinks they might have used an unlicensed gambling site?

What makes you think it may have been an unlicensed gambling website?

What were the signs?

How do you feel about these sites?

For those who have used them, what were the reasons for doing so?

If you haven’t used them before, why do you think someone else may want to?

2. Push factor deep-dive (45 mins)

Aim: to explore participant reactions to push factors, understanding which resonate most and why and which may motivate them to use an unlicensed site.

As mentioned in the webinar, the main topic of discussion is people using unlicensed gambling websites. Because there can be risks associated with using these sites, we want to understand exactly why people are drawn to them, how we can better protect against any associated risks, and what might encourage people to use licensed gambling platforms instead.

I’m now going to share a number of scenarios which may attract people to using licensed gambling websites, which we've gathered from previous research. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list, and your own views might be completely different. You will have seen these in the webinar and pre-task but just as a reminder I’ll show them to you. Please take a minute to read each of these. Once you’ve read them, I want you to note down which of these stood out to you the most and why.

(Moderator to share a slide with all push factors displayed together.)

Okay, let’s go round the group: Which of these stand out to you the most and why? What did you write?

And briefly, as we’ll explore this in more detail later, who, if anyone and/or any bodies and/or parties do you see as being involved and influencing and/or shaping these factors?

We’re now going to dive into each of these in a bit more detail.

(Moderator to display one push factor at a time and probe)

What is your initial reaction to this?

Is this something you’ve experienced before?

Why do you think this would motivate someone to use an unlicensed site?

Additional probes for moderator (if does not come up naturally in discussion): Role of marketing in attracting participants to licensed and unlicensed sites, and whether participants have seen a change in quantity of marketing they receive (hypohesise reduced marketing and/or promos may lower engagement with legal operators). When discussing factor D ‘licensed gambling websites require too much information from customers’, explore what spontaneously comes to mind and what people understand the reason for requiring information for customers to be, for example for identity or finances, and how these are perceived by participants (whether these are seen as judgmental in nature, whether conflated as the same thing or if can distinguish between different types). For reference, reasons for these checks including for anti-money laundering, Know Your Customer (KYC) and so on. (Note: Moderator may need to explain the reasons to participants and check their views depending on spontaneous reaction.)

Now you’ve seen these in more detail, we’re going to do a mapping exercise. I’m going to show you a few different scales and I want us to plot where these scenarios would sit along each of them. It’s okay if you disagree as to where these scenarios sit, I’m keen to understand everyone’s experiences.

(Moderator to show each scale in turn and ask the group to map each scenario against the axes, probing how this relates to their own experiences and why they’ve placed the scenario where they have. )

3. The role of gambling companies and regulation (45 mins)

Aim: understanding awareness of and attitudes towards gambling companies and gambling regulation and/or The Commission. Unpick perceived roles and responsibilities of these parties when it comes to reducing the number of people using unlicensed sites.

Awareness and knowledge of operators and regulation

Let’s now talk about the gambling industry.

  • When thinking about gambling and how it is licensed, what comes to mind? What are the first words that pop into your head (moderator to note down)
  • Now, when it comes to gambling companies, what comes to mind? What is their role or purpose?
  • If I say regulation, what comes to mind? What are the first words that pop into your head (moderator to note down)
  • What, if anything, do you know about gambling regulation?
  • Have you heard of any specific regulations or regulatory bodies?
  • Have you heard of the Gambling Commission?
  • What do you understand to be their purpose?

I’m now going to show you a definition of each of these, just to ensure we’re all on the same page. Moderator to show gambling company, regulation and Gambling Commission slides.

  • Are there any initial thoughts or reactions to this?
  • Does this align with what you already know?

Responsibilities and influence of operators and regulation

Let’s take each of the scenarios in turn and explore this. Moderator to show all 6 factors at once and probe for each push factor:

  • Do we see gambling companies or regulation influencing this, or something else?
  • Why do you think that?
  • How consciously do you think about the role of gambling companies or regulation in relation to this scenario?

Let’s now think a bit more about the role of each of those involved when it comes to protecting people against the risks associated with using unlicensed websites and what might encourage people to use licensed gambling platforms instead.

  • Do you think either of them have a role to play in relation to the challenge of more people using unlicensed gambling websites?
  • Do you think the actions of either of them have influenced whether people gamble on these sites?
  • If you were in their shoes thinking about this challenge, what actions would you take to encourage people to instead use licensed gambling sites?

Particularly thinking about those who might have experienced gambling-related harm and/or those who might need more protection.

4. Final questions and summary (10 mins)

Aim: wrapping up the session, collecting final thoughts from participants, and allowing time for observers to ask any questions.

We’re coming towards the end of the session now. To finish, it would be great to hear your final reflections:

  • Has anything we’ve discussed today surprised you or made you think differently?
  • Is there anything else you’d like to add which we haven’t covered in the session today?

And finally, I’d like to check if any of our colleagues from the Gambling Commission have any questions.

Lastly, if you feel you would like further support when it comes to gambling or any of the topics we have discussed today, we can direct you to:

Thank and close session.

Previous section
Appendix A – Qualitative pre-task Next section
Appendix C - Qualitative sample breakdown of 15 participants
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