Survey commissioned by the Gambling Commission has found that over 57 percent of British adults regularly partake in some form of gambling.
Wednesday 1st February 2012
The proportion of British adults regularly participating in at least one form of gambling has risen to an all-time high of over 57 percent according to a new study from the Gambling Commission.
The twelve-month survey was conducted by ICM Research and found that 57.3 percent of the 4,000 adults questioned had participated in at least one form of gambling over the previous four weeks. This figure represents a 3.2 percent year-on-year increase and is 2.1 percent higher than the corresponding percentage for the 2009 calendar year.
The poll found that the most popular gambling activity was the purchase of National Lottery tickets at 47.5 percent followed by National Lottery scratchcards at 12.7 percent and tickets for society or other good cause lotteries at 9.6 percent. Wagering on horseracing was the fourth most popular gambling activity at 4.5 percent in advance of gambling on fruit or slot machines at 3.5 percent and buying bingo cards or tickets at a bingo hall at 3.1 percent. The survey discovered that those regularly participating in gambling were ‘more likely to be male than female and were more likely to be aged over 45’.
The Gambling Commission declared that the rate of those regularly participating in remote gambling activities over 2011 also rose to 12.4 percent largely due to ‘increased online participation in the National Lottery’. This percentage is 1.3 percent higher than the rate over previous twelve months and is up by 5.2 percent when compared to the figure for 2006.
“If those only playing National Lottery products remotely are excluded, 6.1 percent of respondents had participated in remote gambling in the year to December of 2011 compared with the figure of 5.7 percent in 2010, 5.7 percent in 2009, 5.6 percent in 2008, 5.2 percent in 2007 and 5.1 percent in 2006,” read a statement from the Gambling Commission.
“Overall, in the year to December 2011, 9.8 percent of respondents said they had remotely purchased tickets for the National Lottery draw in the previous four weeks either only or in addition to other types of gambling activity. Those participating in remote gambling were more likely to be male than female and were more likely to be aged 18 to 44.”
Finally, the Gambling Commission reported that a computer or handheld device was the most popular way of accessing remote gambling over the past year at eleven percent followed by mobile telephones at 2.9 percent and interactive and digital televisions at 1.3 percent.
