Gambling Reports in the United Kingdom

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Two reports have just been released in the United Kingdom. One is the Gambling Prevalence Survey released by the UK Gambling Commission. The other is IBIS World study that covers a longer time frame.

The Gambling Prevalence Survey was completed by ICM Research and covers the year ended March 2012. The report covers overall gambling participation and also remote gambling participation and is based on 4,000 adults surveyed. The overall gambling participation has registered its expected marginal annual increase. In 2009 55.2% of the people said they had participated in at least one form of gambling in the previous four weeks. This has now gone up to 58.1%. As usual the males outnumbered the females and were more likely to be aged over 45.The most popular gambling activity continued to be National Lottery tickets, with 48% of the respondents opting for it. This was followed by National Lottery scratch cards and good cause lotteries. Betting on horse races and gambling on slot machines were 4.3% and 3.4% respectively.

Only 12.2% of the adults surveyed said they had participated in at least one form of remote gambling in the previous four weeks. This figure has been growing steadily since the 7.2% in 2006 to reach a maximum of 12.4% in 2011. Again the National Lottery figured prominently, with tickets being purchased online. The participants were again more likely to be male than female, but the age group was lower at 18 to 44. Remote gambling via a computer or laptop was most popular at 11% of all respondents. This was followed by gambling via mobile phone and interactive or digital TV.

The brief conclusion of the IBIS World updated study of the gambling industry in the United Kingdom was that the industry was in a much better place than ten years ago, but that it had not fared well during the past five years. The problems began with the indoor smoking ban, which led to a decline in revenue and profit. The revenue is expected to continue declining at an annualized rate 0.7% through 2012-13. IBIS World stated that had the economic environment been healthy then the major events would have encouraged gambling growth and profit. However, persistent negative economic conditions have negated the positive effects of major sporting events. Even the London Olympic Games are unlikely to bring any cheer.

Some of the negatives identified by the study are the introduction of government budget cuts, online gambling operators moving offshore and a long-term decrease in the popularity of gambling. The gambling industry is expected to come back on track over the next five years through 2017-18. Some of the factors that will contribute positively have been identified as increasing accessibility, further investments into emerging gambling technology and domestic sporting events like the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games and 2015 Rugby World Cup.

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