Gambling Commission releases latest study results

Excluding the National Lottery, 5.1 % of respondents gambled online last month

In the UK, a study from the Gambling Commission has found that the proportion of adults participating in remote forms of gambling has remained static at 8.8 % for the year despite the lifting of restrictions on advertising.

The Commission is the regulatory body for all forms of gambling in the UK and the findings came following a national representative sample survey of 8,000 people conducted by ICM research.

Excluding remote participation in the National Lottery, the survey found that only 5.1 percent of respondents had gambled online or by using a mobile device or interactive television in the past month compared to 5.2 percent a year ago.

The study found that Internet gaming continues to be the most popular way to participate at 7.1 percent, which compared to 6.9 percent in March of last year and 5.2 percent in 2006. Mobile gaming was found to be popular with 2.4 percent of respondents versus 2.5 percent last year and 2.2 percent in 2006 while interactive television remained almost unchanged at 1.8 percent.

Excluding National Lottery participants, the Commission stated that the prevalence of Internet gaming climbed from 3.8 percent last year to 3.9 percent this year while mobile gaming fell from 2 percent to 1.7 percent with interactive television remaining static at 1.2 percent. It found that the National Lottery continues to be the most popular form of remote gaming in the UK with 6.3 percent of all respondents indicating that they take part followed by sportsbetting at 2.3 percent, poker at 1.4 percent, other lotteries at 1.3 percent and casinos and bingo halls at one percent each.

The Commission also announced that it had commenced planning for the 2010 British Gambling Prevalence Study, building on the two previous surveys carried out in 1999 and 2007, and plans to engage with academics and other interested parties in advance of the tendering process.