Overall Participation in Gambling Activities Increases in UK

Recently, reports from two quarterly surveys were released – one was a Gambling Prevalence Survey conducted by ICM Research and brought out by  the Gambling Commission in the UK, and the other, was an IBIS World Study which was conducted over a long period. The former covers the period from April 2011 to March 2012. The study, which looked into two aspects – participation in remote gambling and overall gambling – was conducted on reports from 4,000 adult online casino players.

Overall participation in gambling activities recorded the marginal yearly increase that was expected. In 2009, a little over 55.00% respondents reported that they had participated in a minimum of one gambling activity over four weeks. When the same period was considered between 2011 and 2012, the percentage rose to 58% approximately.

More Male Players at Casinos than Females

When the number of male and female players were considered, the former was higher than the latter. According to the results of the survey, most of the players at casinos were aged 45 and over. 3.4% of the respondents played on slot machines, while 4.3% went for sports betting and close to 48%, for National Lottery tickets.

The percentage of players who opted for remote gambling in the UK was just 12.2%, when respondents were asked whether they had played at casino sites in the four weeks leading to the survey. This is a 5% rise from the percentage in 2006. But, compared to the results of last year, which was close to 12.5%, the figure for this year is low. Among remote gamblers too, the National Lottery ranked the highest when respondents were asked about the betting options they opted for, in a period of four weeks. Most of the players at remote gambling sites were males. The age group of the majority of players at the sites was between 18 and 44.

11% Prefer Online Gambling

11% of the respondents stated that their preferred platform for remote gambling was online, via laptops and computers. The other two options they used were mobile phones and digital or interactive television.

According to the IBIS World study, the UK gambling industry is in a better state compared to what it was 10 years ago. However, when looked at against how the industry fared five years ago, the current state is not good. There was a drop in both profit and revenue when offline casinos in the UK banned smoking indoors. IBIS World holds the current economic climate responsible for the condition of the online gambling industry in the UK. Based on its report, a healthy economy would have helped in the growth of the gambling industry.

For instance, if the economic state was good in the UK, the Olympic Games of 2012 would have driven a large number of punters to betting agencies like Mr Green and 888, which recently brought out a million dollar offer for slots players. However, the numbers are likely to be quite small this time. Other factors that contributed negatively to the state of the gambling industry in the UK were the shifting of online gambling operators from the country and the introduction of budget cuts.