Here we take a look at the highlights likely to affect action on such issues as tackling problem gambling and the granting of new licences, as well as state attitudes to different sectors of the gaming industry.

Combining the responses of nearly 8000 members of the public to exhaustive questioning on their gaming activity and attitudes, the new survey means the Commission now has a decade’s worth of data not only providing a snapshot of British gaming in the here and now, but also beginning to reveal some trends over time. The full report can be downloaded from www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk.

The big picture

Seventy-three percent of British people aged over 16 gambled in some way in the year preceding the survey – around 35.5m individuals. That is roughly comparable with the rate measured of 72 percent in 1999, and up on 2007’s 68 percent.

Overall, gaming is on the increase among both women and men. The proportion of women taking part has grown from 65 percent in 2007 to 71 percent in 2010; for men, the figures are 71 percent in 2007 and 75 percent in 2010.

Many of those, however, had only participated in the National Lottery draw. Excluding those people from the total, 56 percent of adults took part in some form of gambling.

What they play

The National Lottery is the most popular form of gambling, played by 59 percent of all Britons. It is followed by other lotteries at 25 percent and scratch-cards at 24 percent.

Next most popular is betting on horse racing, at 16 percent. Then come slots, at 13 percent; private betting, at 11 percent; and bingo and sports betting, both at nine percent.

Casino games were played by five percent in the year prior to the survey; fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBT) were used by four percent, also the same proportion that played football pools, bet on dog racing or bet on non-sports events. At the bottom of the table come online slot and instant-win games, played by three percent; pub or club poker, played by two percent; and spread betting, which attracted just one percent of the population.

Many forms of gaming are on the increase. Sports betting with a bookmaker on events other than horse and dog races soared, now involving nine percent of adults against three percent in 1999. Entering lotteries other than the National Lottery engaged a full 25 percent of consumers in 2010, but just eight percent in 1999.

The popularity of slots seemed to be decreasing slightly, involving 13 percent of adults against 14 percent in both 2007 and 1999. Unexpectedly, online slot and instant-win games have actually decreased in popularity since 2007 too, with involvement falling from four to three percent. The major loser, however, was football pools, down from nine percent in 1999 to four percent.

Online gaming

British gamers’ activity is overwhelmingly offline. Eighty-one percent of those surveyed said they only gambled offline, while just two percent were exclusively online players. The balance, 17 percent, did both. And in no category of gaming did the number of online participants come close to exceeding the number of offline players.

Unsurprisingly, casino gaming was the form most likely to take place online, with 27 percent of those who took part doing so exclusively on the Internet, and a further 12 percent mixing Internet play with visits to bricks-and-mortar venues.

Sports betting and betting on non-sports events were also relatively popular online, with 27 and 21 percent of players respectively placing some of their bets online. However, betting on horse and dog races was more likely to be an offline-only activity; only 12 and seven percent of participants, respectively, used online.

Twenty percent of bingo players took part online at least some of the time.

In total, 14 percent of British adults had used the Internet to gamble during the year.

Demographics of gamblers

Gambling is most common among the 44-to-64 age group, and least common among the very oldest and very youngest age groups.

Insofar as there is a typical gambler, he or she is married or divorced, white, not educated beyond GCSE level, and employed in a lower supervisory or technical role. Those who only play for high stakes, however, are more likely to be graduates.

Gender differences

Men are only slightly more interested in gambling than women – 75 percent of men, against 71 percent of women, had taken part during the year.

But in nearly every category men outnumbered women, most notably in playing football pools (eight percent of men against just one percent of women), sports betting (16 percent against two percent), and pub/club poker and spread betting, which were entirely male pursuits.

Sixteen percent of men played slots, against ten percent of women, and seven percent of men played FOBTs while they attracted just two percent of women.

The only categories where women were more likely to take part than men were scratch-cards (25 percent against 23 percent) and, true to cliché, bingo (12 percent against six percent).

Men also seek more variety in gambling than do women. Among people who gamble at all (rather than the general population), the men typically engage in three different activities each year, whereas women try 2.3.

Over the longer term, however, there seems to be more growth in gambling among women than among men. The proportion of women participating in 2010, 71 percent, was up on 1999’s 68 percent. But the proportion of men was actually down slightly, from 76 percent to 75 percent.

Attitudes to gambling

“As in 2007,” says the report, “the average view was that gambling was more harmful than beneficial and should not be encouraged.”

Nevertheless, the typical respondent did believe that individuals have a right to gamble, and was opposed to prohibition, and the report says: “Comparisons with 2007 show that overall attitudes to gambling in 2010 have become more positive. Although the overall viewpoint is still somewhat negative, it is less negative than previously, indicating that attitudes are changing.”

In particular, over-55s are becoming more tolerant of gambling as they themselves take part more often.

Attitudes were more positive among men, people of white ethnicity, and regular gamblers.

Problem gambling

The prevalence of problem gambling in the adult British population was estimated by one measure to have risen to 0.9 percent, having been 0.6 percent in both 1999 and 2007, with the new figure equating to around 450,000 individuals.

By another measure, however, it was 0.7 percent, or 360,000 adults. The two measures, the report suggests, “are capturing slightly different people and different types of gambling-related problems”.

Problem gamblers were most likely to be male, to be younger, to smoke cigarettes, and to have parents who gambled regularly and had experienced problems with this. Asian ethnicity, unemployment and poor health were also associated with problem gambling.

Printer friendly version

Email this article to a friend

Bookmark this

---