UKGC given recommendations to improve landmark survey

The UK Gambling Commission has had its Gambling Survey for Great Britain endorsed by a leading academic, who has also given the regulator seven recommendations for its methodology.

Professor Patrick Sturgis of the London School of Economics said the survey “can be expected to yield high quality and timely estimates of gambling prevalence in Great Britain.”

The GSGB is the UK regulator’s new methodology for measuring gambling prevalence and also gambling-related harms in the country.

In November, fresh UKGC data marked the final phase of an experimental stage for the GSGB. The UKGC plans to release official statistics from Wave 1 of the GSGB at the end of February.

Professor Sturgis’ recommendations relate to how the Gambling Commission should address the key remaining unresolved issues around how the shift to survey self-completion in the GSGB has affected estimates of gambling behaviour.

Among his recommendations was for the Gambling Commission to carry out research on the prevalence of gambling and gambling harm in groups that are excluded from the GSGB because they are not included on the sampling frame.

Professor Sturgis has also advised the regulator to take steps to assess the extent of potential bias in the subset of questions administered to online respondents only.

The experimental data release in November surveyed around 4,000 people between April and May 2023 on their gambling activities, finding that 50 per cent of respondents gambled on any activity in the past four weeks.

Professor Sturgis said: “The Gambling Commission has engaged with a broad range of stakeholders and followed industry standards of best practice in developing a survey design that can be expected to yield high quality and timely estimates of gambling prevalence in Great Britain.

“Following the launch of the GSGB, there are some key recommendations for the Commission to consider to ensure the quality and robustness of the statistics continues to build stakeholder and public confidence.”

The experimental data also found that participation in gambling is higher in males than females. In the past 12 months, 61 per cent had participated in some form of gambling.

Tim Miller, executive director of Research and Policy at the Gambling Commission, said: “We are clear that better evidence, driven by better data, will lead to better regulation, which in turn will lead to better outcomes.

“We welcome the recommendations in the report to continue to understand the impact of the changes made to both the survey design and the methodology as we move forward with the launch.

“We recognise that all methodologies need to continue to evolve and improve over time and this independent report helps to highlight some initial areas of focus once our new approach has gone live.”