The Annual Gambling Survey Report Disclosed

You’re a gambler but have you ever wondered about the mindset of other players? The Gambling Commission released its annual report in February 2017 that targets Great Britain in their participation rates, behavior, awareness, and attitudes. The information gathered was conducted by telephone and online surveys to determine gambling habits that covered activity in a four-week period.

Whose Gambling by Age

Nearly half at 48% confirmed they have participated in at least one form of gambling in the previous four weeks. Men are more inclined to gamble than women with 53% of men and 44% of women reporting participation in any form of gambling.

Age Brackets

• Group ranged from 35 – 64
• 53% were 55 – 64
• 53% were 45-54
• 49% were 35-44

An increase in younger groups showed 38% were between the ages of 16 – 24 and 48% from 25 -34. However, in the report, it suggests that the number may be higher due to the UEFA European Football Championship and the Rio 2016 Olympics occurring in the summer of 2016 causing a higher than usual betting activity among younger people.

Online Gamblers

A small increase of people has gambled online at 17%, up from the 15% reported in 2013. A bigger increase appears with men at 21% vs. 14% being women. Surprisingly, it is the younger folks who have the largest increase in online participation: between 16 - 24

• 16% between 16 – 24 25%
• 21% between 25-34
• 22% between 35-44 the highest increase

What Gamblers Played

The National Lottery draws top the list at 30%, scratch cards 12% and other lotteries at 12%. It remains in the lead as the most popular gambling activity. However, there has been a decline in participation. To a certain degree, it's most likely due to the increase in the ticket price from £1 to £2 in October 2013.

Interest in slot machines was 5% while sports betting was 7%. Again, due to the UEFA European Football Championship and the Rio 2016 Olympics that took place during the survey explains why there was an increase in sports betting and private betting directly attributing to these events.

How Much Time is Spent Gambling

Participants shared how often they spent money on gambling. The highest percentage rate of gambling activity in the four-week period was overall once a week for 35%, followed by once a month but less than once a week for 29%, two or more days a week 23% and less than once a month 13% participated in gambling.

Problem Gamblers

Men are more likely to be at-risk gamblers at 7.7% compared to 3.5% of women. When it came to age groups, 25-34-year-olds were most liable to be at at-risk at 9.5%, and the 16-24-year-olds came in second at 7.9%. These stats for at-risk gambling for both men and women have increased since December 2015.

Online Device Preferences

What devices are online gamblers using more often? When asked, laptops remain the most popular choice of accessing online gambling at 55%. In second are the desktop PCs at 34%, mobile phones at 29% and tablets users 21%. Men are more likely to use a mobile than females with 32% compared to 25%. However female online gamblers are more likely to use tablets than males with 23% to 20%.

Who's Reading Terms and Conditions

The survey added more questions June 2016 due to the Commission’s concerns about potential breaches of consumer law in the gambling industry. Gamblers expressed whether they had ever read terms and conditions about gaming products and if so, were they helpful. In July follow-up questions were then added to get feedback from gamblers who had not read terms and conditions also if any were unfair.

23% of players had read terms and conditions, but the majority did not despite awareness of their availability. 21% of gamblers were completely unaware that they were even available.

Women are less likely to read terms and conditions and only 19% having ever done so compared to men at 27%. 36% of people who didn’t know they existed were aged 65+, and 28% retired with a private pension.

The survey revealed lower income groups are less likely to read terms and conditions and 44% of gamblers who were unaware of terms and conditions had a household income of less than £21,000.

Top 10 Reasons Players Don’t Read Terms and Conditions

• Too much time to read
• I do not need/feel it is necessary
• Laziness and too much effort
• I do not gamble
• I only play the lottery
• Print was too small
• I do not spend much on gambling
• I do not see the point; I am going to participate regardless
• I do not understand them
• I have never thought about it

Attitude

The Commission since 2008, asked respondents about their perception of gambling in a telephone survey conducted quarterly. The questions posed to people in Great Britain included - is gambling is fair, can be trusted and is gambling associated with criminal activity.

34% did feel gaming was fair and could be trusted in 2016 down -5% from 2015. However, the data did show there has been a declining trend in people’s confidence, which appears amongst both gamblers and non-gamblers until 2015. Interestingly enough, there is an increase in positivity amongst non-gamblers 29% up +2% from 2015 and a decrease in players 38%, down 7% from 2015.

Men, for the most part, had a more positive attitude to gambling than women on all individual statements and therefore had a higher overall score of 22.6 compared to 20.6 for women. Younger folks were more confident than older people, although the total score for all age groups was below the neutral point.

Source:

“Gambling-participation-in-2016-behaviour-awareness-and-attitudes”, gamblingcommission.gov.uk