Report
Sturgis review recommendation 3 update
Impact of new gambling activities list on the Gambling Survey for Great Britain participation and consequences estimates
Experimental design and hypothesis
Experimental design
In March 2024, the Gambling Commission (the Commission) asked YouGov to conduct an online survey experiment to assess the impact of different gambling activity lists on estimates of gambling participation and prevalence of potentially problematic gambling behaviours. In total, 2,064 participants aged 18 and over and living in Great Britain took part in the study.
Participants were randomly allocated to one of two conditions:
- In the Health Survey Condition, participants were presented with the gambling activity list used in the Health Surveys for England, Scotland, and Wales.
- In the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB) Condition, participants were presented with the list of activities provided in the GSGB.
In both conditions, participants were asked to indicate which, if any, of the listed activities they had engaged in over the past 12 months. The key difference between the 2 lists was that the GSGB list included a broader range of online activities, which better reflects the current gambling landscape. For the full list of activities see Appendix - Activity lists.
Participants who had taken part in any gambling during the past year were then presented with the full 9 item Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) screen which measures behavioural symptoms of gambling disorder and certain adverse consequences from gambling. Answer options for the 9 PGSI statements are ‘almost always’, ‘most of the time’, ‘sometimes’, ‘never’. Responses to the 9 questions are summed up and a score ranging between 0 and 27 is computed. Scores are grouped into the following categories:
- PGSI score 0: representing a person who gambles (including heavily), but does not report experiencing any of the nine symptoms or adverse consequences asked about. In population prevalence analysis, participants who had not gambled in the past 12 months are also given a PGSI score of 0
- PGSI score 1 to 2: representing low risk gambling by which a person is unlikely to have experienced any adverse consequences from gambling but may be at risk if they are heavily involved in gambling
- PGSI score 3 to 7: representing moderate risk gambling by which a person may or may not have experienced adverse consequences from gambling but may be at risk if they are heavily involved in gambling
- PGSI score 8 or more: representing problem gambling by which a person will have experienced adverse consequences from their gambling and may have lost control of their behaviour. Involvement in gambling can be at any level, but is likely to be heavy.
Participants were roughly evenly allocated to Health Survey and GSGB Conditions (Health Survey Condition = 1,051; GSGB Condition = 1,012), and groups were matched in terms of age and gender. The survey was distributed to a nationally representative sample, and responses were weighted to reflect the national profile of adults aged 18 and over. The fieldwork for the survey took place between Thursday 28 March and Friday 29 March 2024.
Hypothesis
The list of gambling activities provided in the GSGB covers a broader range of online activities than those listed in the health surveys. For this reason, we hypothesised that the GSGB Condition would identify a higher proportion of people who had gambled online, relative to the Health Survey Condition. Given that online gambling activities tend to be associated with higher PGSI scores1, we also hypothesised that the GSGB Condition would yield a higher proportion of people scoring 8 or more on the PGSI, compared with the Health Survey Condition.
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Results
Last updated: 9 October 2024
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