Long-awaited controversial new gambling industry survey set to be published

Controversial new official statistics for gambling are set to be published on Thursday as the Gambling Commission unveils the long-awaited results of a new survey of the sector.

The Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB) will feature figures on gambling participation and its consequences, using a new methodology which will replace the previously used NHS Health Surveys. However, there are concerns that the new methodology considerably overstates the level of problem gambling in Britain and will lead to renewed calls for stricter regulation of the industry.

This could have ramifications for both punters and British racing should the GSGB's findings result in increased interventions and the thresholds for affordability checks being revisited.

Last week the Gambling Commission released guidance for how the data in the GSGB should be used. It warned it should not be used to provide direct comparisons with results from previous gambling or health surveys; as a measure of addiction to gambling; to calculate an overall rate of gambling-related harm in Britain or to gross up the prevalence of problem gambling or the consequences of gambling to the whole population.

However, media outlets and campaigners for reform have already used figures from previously released experimental stages of the survey to do just that. The commission has said it will take action against those who misuse the GSG statistics.

Gambling survey special report

• Part 1; How debunked stats and a selective approach to publishing research has misled the gambling reform debate 
• Part 2: The Gambling Commission's shocking new betting survey is drawing heavy criticism - so why is it still being published?

Speaking during a webinar organised by regulatory analysts Vixio this week, Gambling Commission executive director Tim Miller said: "I think what's clear is that all methodologies absolutely have their limitations. I think the difference here is that we are being very open and transparent about what the GSGB's current limitations are."

He added: "It is sometimes presented that there are challenges with the GSGB method but there are no challenges with what we had before, and that is simply not true.

Gambling Commission executive director Tim Miller

"The difference for us is that we had very little scope to try ourselves as a regulator to address those limitations in the health survey methodology which is why we developed a separate one ourselves."

The Gambling Commission has been criticised for its handling of previous gambling research, notably its failure to fully publish a 2021 survey on affordability checks which demonstrated public opposition to the concept until a recent freedom of information request.

Horseracing Bettors Forum chairman Sean Trivass said of the GSGB: "As we all know, previous Gambling Commission survey results were not published in full, perhaps because they failed to suit the narrative, and that attitude, if repeated, makes the entire exercise potentially both futile and misleading. 

"Naturally, the HBF along with the rest of the racing industry wants to protect and educate anyone with a gambling issue, but it must be done to equally suit the vast majority who enjoy an affordable bet without issue, and not steam-roller through a hobby, a sport, and potentially an entire industry." 

Read these next:

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The Gambling Commission's shocking new betting survey is drawing heavy criticism - so why is it still being published? 

How debunked stats and a selective approach to publishing research has misled the gambling reform debate 

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