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Online slots players are six times more likely to be problem gamblers, according to new data from the UK Gambling Commission, as the regulator’s plea not to compare fresh overall problem gambling rates to previous surveys appear to fall on deaf ears.
Individuals who play online slots games are more than six times more likely to be classified as problem gamblers than the average person who gambles, according to new Gambling Commission data.
Meanwhile, those who bet on non-sports events in person were more than nine times more likely to fall into the same bracket.
The survey also included data on potential links between suicide and gambling.
Of the 11.4 percent of participants who had thought about or attempted taking their own life, 4.9 percent reported that this was related to their gambling either a little or a lot, with 1.1 percent reporting that this was related to their gambling a lot.
The new Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB), published on Thursday (July 25), is designed to give the Gambling Commission an independent source of statistics on the way in which British consumers gamble.
This first release, the commission says, will act as a baseline for comparing future versions of the study, with the next round of data expected in September this year.
Industry stakeholders have been dreading its release over fears that the new methodology used to create the survey will report a much higher overall rate of problem gambling than previous official studies.
According to the GSGB, of the 9,804 individuals it surveyed, 2.5 percent of respondents scored more than eight on the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI), which would typically classify them as problem gamblers.
That would represent a massive increase on the 0.3 percent reported in previous official statistics, but the Gambling Commission has taken great pains to warn that the new survey cannot be compared to the old because of the changes in the way it is carried out.
“What’s clear is, all methods have their limitations,” said commission executive director Tim Miller, speaking on a Vixio webinar on Tuesday.
“[I am] confident this [data] will be the new gold standard … when published with the appropriate caveats,” he added.
Despite this, the industry remains highly concerned that various groups from media outlets to reform campaigners will ignore these instructions and use the new figures to pressure politicians to introduce harsher rules.
Even before the survey had been officially released, a letter addressed to Prime Minister Keir Starmer and signed by members of the House of Lords, academics and activists cites comments by officials “that the commission’s new research presents a higher picture of gambling harm than existed previously”.
The letter called for the immediate introduction of a Safer Gambling Levy, which was consulted on earlier this year before the snap general election forestalled a government response that is still yet to emerge.
On BBC News on Thursday morning, Will Prochaska of the Coalition Against Gambling Ads said that the 2023 government white paper proposing various gambling reforms had been constructed “based on bad information” and “we’re about to find out what a much better number is and I think that will really focus minds within the government”.
Prochaska's group and others like it would use the new figures to call for online slots stakes to be capped ever lower than the planned £5, he said.
Speaking on the Vixio webinar, Sarah Fox, head of gaming and lotteries at the Department for Digital, Media, Culture & Sport, confirmed that a new minister would be given the chance to review the planned online slots stake limits before they are introduced and could choose to change them.
“The high level of harm identified highlights the need for the urgent implementation of the measures outlined in the Gambling White Paper, such as the statutory levy,” said Lord Foster of Bath, who leads the group Peers for Gambling Reform, also leaping on the new stats to pressure the government.
In a contrasting response to the survey’s release, the Betting and Gaming Council industry group attempted to cast doubt on the results.
“Our members are concerned these findings may be unreliable because there is a significant risk GSGB overstates gambling participation and gambling-related harm,” a spokesperson said.
The Gambling Commission has admitted that its new push-to-web survey “may overstate some gambling behaviours” and that until more research is conducted the problem rates recorded in the survey should not be extrapolated to apply to the entire British population.
Still, it has also defended the survey and pointed to an independent review by the London School of Economics which backed the new methodology.
In its guidance on how to use its statistics, the commission says that new numbers “can be used with some caution (until further work is completed): to provide estimates of PGSI scores amongst adults (aged 18 and over) in Great Britain”.
The survey represents a key battleground in a war being fought from three directions.
On one side activists are wielding statistics to advance their agendas, while on another the industry and its allies try to diminish the survey as a whole. All while a beleaguered Gambling Commission attempts to both defend its research with one hand, and mitigate it with the other.
