UKGC Releases Results from 2016 Participation Study

On February 28th, the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) released its annual report entitled ‘UK gambling participation, attitudes and behaviours’, with its latest findings showing the robust state of the country’s gambling industry.
According to the study, 48% of those people surveyed admitted to having gambling in the past four weeks, a figure that was up by 3% compared to 2015, although that number falls to 33% when the National Lottery is excluded from the statistics. Furthermore, the number of men gambling increased from 50% in 2015 to 53% in 2016, and for women from 41% in 2015 to 44% in 2016.
In line with general industry trends, the study also found that betting taking place via mobile devices has become increasingly more popular, with 43 percent of UK respondents having used their mobiles to wager in 2016, up from 33 percent compared to the year before. In the meantime, 17% of gamblers chose to place their bets over the internet, with an overwhelming majority of 97% doing so from the comfort of their own homes. That particular statistic, however, has remained unchanged from 2015, as was the percentage of people gambling on slots based at bookmakers, that remained unaltered at 1.5%.
With so many gambling adverts being shown on UK television, the UKGC was naturally keen to ascertain people’s general attitude towards the gambling industry as a whole, and while 78 percent of people believed there are currently too many gambling options available to the public, 67 percent also said that people should be given the right to choose whether to gamble or not. Commenting on the latest results, the UKGC stated that having access to such data helps it to refine and improve the UK’s gambling industry, with UKGC program director James Green explaining:
“We are also now able to provide a more detailed snapshot of online behaviours, which featured for the first time last year. Effective protections come from strong evidence. Our research puts us in a powerful position to better understand the needs of gambling consumers.”