Online gambling slows in Britain

The latest UK Gambling Commission Q1-2015 prevalence study indicates that participation in gambling has eased, falling 5 percentage points to 51 percent y-o-y, according to survey respondents asked whether they had gambled online in the last four weeks.

The prevalence study is a regularly assessed and published yardstick of the gambling activity of British punters.

The National Lottery remains, as it has in years past, the main attraction for gamblers and constitutes 36 percent of the market (down 5 points on the same period last year) – stripping it out of the statistics the participation number is 31 percent, having fallen by two points.

36 percent of players used the National Lottery, whilst 13 percent opted for other lottery action and 9 percent chose scratchards to soothe their gambling itch.

Online gambling and betting activity (including lottery activity) remained largely unchanged, falling just one point to 16 percent; excluding lottery activity it came in at 9 percent – again one point down.

It appears from the statistics that women gamblers are in the ascendant online – up 2 points to 13 percent – whilst males fell 4 points to 17 percent.

The gender picture is similar when gambling overall is considered, with males declining 6 points to 55 percent and females down 3 points at 48 percent.  Taking the lotteries out of the equation, women gamblers are up a point at 8 percent, whilst males have fallen 2 points to 11 percent.

Looking at age demographics, the main upward movements have been in the 24 to 34 year bracket, up 2 points to 14 percent; and the over sixties, where activity rose 1 percent to 5 percent.

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