Gambling survey

Author: Simon Dexter

With companies now allowed greater access to the public to advertise their gambling products, one would assume that the level of gambling activity would have increased.

However, the recently commissioned British Gambling Prevalence Survey suggests that the amount of people having a regular flutter is actually falling.

The key findings were:-

68% of the population, that is about 32 million adults, had participated in some form of gambling activity within the past year. This compares to 72% (about 33 million adults) in 1999.

For around 10 million people, their only gambling activity in the past year had been participating in a National Lottery draw. In 1999 this figure was 11 million.

Excluding people who had only gambled on the National Lottery Draw in the last year, 48% of the population, or about 23 million, had participated in another form of gambling in the past year. This compares to 46% (about 22 million adults) in 1999.

The most popular gambling activities in Great Britain in 2007 were:

* The National Lottery Draw (57%)
* Scratchcards (20%)
* Betting on horse races (17%) and
* Playing slot machines (14%)

Only a small proportion of people engaged in the new forms of gambling available in Great Britain:

* 6% of people used the Internet to gamble (3% did online gaming like playing poker or casino games and 4% placed bets with a bookmaker)
* 3% used fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs)

The biggest surprise to me was the small percentage of people who chose to gamble online. This seems a strange figure in light of the fact that more and more people have access to the internet these days as well as connection speeds vastly improving over recent years.

More of a shock was seeing poker and casinos not mentioned in the most popular forms of gambling, although I bet these figures will change over time - especially poker, which is starting to reach a much wider audience than ever before.

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