Uk Gambling Participation
The COVID-19 pandemic brought the economies across the world to a standstill in the first half of 2020. Due to the suspension of business operations, there have been many layoffs, leaving millions of people jobless.
2016 was a record growth year in the UK gambling industry. In this post, we focus on the performance of its main three critical aspects including yield, participation and problems.
The UK Gambling Commission has reported that the number of people in the country participating in gambling activities dropped by 2% in the past year. UK gambling participation drops in 2013 iGaming Business. United Kingdom Last week, the Gambling Commission published its 2018 edition of Gambling Participation: Behaviour, Awareness and Attitudes. This report collates data gathered by an independent organisation through telephone and online surveys conducted with people aged 16 + to present annual estimates of gambling behaviour in the UK. This survey shows a distribution of online gambling participants in the United Kingdom (UK) as of December 2019, by type of gambling activity. Among respondents, 35.5 percent participated in online.
Just like the rest of the world, the UK has also faced the brunt of the outbreak, leading to the shutdown of various industries, including the gambling sector. According to the UK’s National Statistics (ONS), 0.4 percent of companies have permanently shut down due to this pandemic. The ones that are still functional, have cut down on an average of 21 percent of their workforce.
The full lockdown in the UK has resulted in significant changes in consumer behaviour, and have affected the gambling industry.
The pandemic has left a huge impact in the UK gambling industry across the country. The government issued a decree instructing to close all casinos, bookmaking, bingo halls, restaurants, cinemas, bars, and other businesses.
The operating data by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) comparing statistics of March 2020 and March 2019 provided key insights into the changing gambling market trends. Since all the retail-gambling venues were closed in March 2020, the gambling activities that usually generate 50 percent of the total market (except lotteries) stopped.
Less Percentage of Consumers are Gambling
During the lockdown, only licensed betting operators in the UK had permission to operate at the gambling venues in June 2020. However, consumer participation in gambling outlets declined sharply.
The full lockdown period did not attract many new consumers to gambling. A YouGov survey between May 20 and 21, 2020, shows that only 0.4 percent of respondents resumed gambling for the first time after the lockdown started. In comparison, nearly 2.1 percent of adults stopped gambling altogether during that period.
When it comes to the National Lottery, the YouGov data further shows that consumer participation dropped in draw-based games to 22 percent in mid-June from 26 percent in mid-April. It happened due to a change in consumer behaviour where we can see a significant shift from retail to online gambling.
During the lockdown many consumers tried new gambling products
The online operator data on online gambling reveals that over the past few months, more consumers began trying new digital gambling products.
During May 2020, the scenario was almost identical to the previous month, though there was a marginal drop in the percentage of active players who participated in more than one gambling activity, which came down to 40 percent from 43 percent.
Online Gaming Market Surged during the Lockdown
Again, the UKGC report shows a significant rise in the percentage of consumers searching and participating in online gambling. There has been a rise of nearly 25 percent in people trying online slots, and it went up further by around 38 percent when it comes to poker. This data is during the first two months of the COVID-19 outbreak.
The online gaming industry is one of those rare sectors that could survive through this pandemic with relatively lesser financial damage. The popularity of online casinos has gone up sharply, and they are doing brisk business compared to the established traditional casinos. Check for top independent and EU casinos.
Popular UK Online Casinos Lead the Way
During the pandemic, the UK gambling industry witnessed a major shift, as many gamblers began moving to online gambling due to the closure of physical gaming houses. This switchover has boosted the popular gambling websites in the country.
Many customers love to do gambling on their smartphone using the apps, while others participate in online gambling on their desktops and laptops. If you are interested in top-quality online gambling, check this guide to casinos not on gamstop to satisfy your cravings for gambling.
With a population of 67.6 million and a gross domestic product of $2.8 trillion in 2018, Great Britain has a flourishing, market-oriented economy. It makes sense for such a developed country to boast one of the largest gambling industries on a global scale. The sector was worth the hefty £14.5 billion in 2018 alone.
Gambling is widespread in the country, with Brits betting on everything from table games and lotteries to slot machines and bingo. Great Britain is also a nation of keen sports bettors, boasting over 8,400 landbased bookmaking shops on its territory.
According to a 2018 survey, nearly one half of the country’s general population (46%) admitted they have gambled over the last four weeks, with 18% of the participants choosing to do so online and 55% preferring to place their bets on mobile devices.
The industry falls under the oversight of the local watchdog, the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC), which does everything within its means to minimize gambling-related harm, especially where the young population is concerned. In October, the regulator published the results of its latest survey that tackled the gambling trends among children and teenagers in 2019.
UKGC Reports a Decline in Youth Gambling Participation for 2019
Research company Ipsos MORI conducted a survey on behalf of the UKGC that took place from February 2019 to June 2019. The survey involved 2,943 participants aged 11 to 16 from 124 educational institutions in the United Kingdom.
The results suggest there is a decline in underage gambling participation as 11% of the surveyed minors admitted they have gambled in the week before the survey. This is a 3% drop from the participation rates reported during the previous year.
In turn, this year’s results indicated a massive drop in participation compared to 2011, when as many as 23% of the young respondents from this age group confirmed they have spent money on gambling.
Similarly to the results in 2018, young boys showed a greater inclination towards such activities, with 13% of the male participants admitting they have gambled during the above-specified period as opposed to 7% for the girls.
Uk Gambling Participation Program
What Gambling Activities Have Young Brits Participated in?
The UKGC survey also explored what forms of gambling the young population participates in. It was established that the average gambling spend of minors within this age group was £17, with an average weekly allowance of £26.
The results suggest that minors mostly partake in activities that are unregulated but legal and have no age restrictions, a trend which continues from the previous year. The activities that fall in this category include placing private bets (5% of the respondents) and wagering on card games with peers (3% of the surveyed).
Certain activities like pooled sports betting and playing the National Lottery are legal for individuals who are at least 16 years old. As many as 2% of the surveyed responded they have played online instant-win games via the National Lottery website.
Coin pushers, claw machines, and low-stake fruit machines in entertainment centres have no minimum-age restrictions in the United Kingdom. The minors who admitted they have used them in the past week stood at 4%. One noticeable change concerns the participation in online gambling, which was higher this year – it has jumped from 1% in 2018 to 3% in 2019.
On a side note, it is worth mentioning that the Commission cautioned that these results should be interpreted with prudence due to changes in the methodology of the survey. The small sample size also bears consideration, the UKGC warned.
Gambling in the Context of Other Detrimental Activities
The survey also put gambling in the context of other detrimental activities to better explore the potential correlation between them. The results published in the Commission’s report suggest one such correlation may really exist.
Looking at the infographic of CasinoGuardian, you can easily see that underage individuals who have spent money on gambling over the past week are more likely to have consumed alcohol (41%), used illegal substances (21%), smoked tobacco (25%) or electronic cigarettes (27%) as opposed to the surveyed who have not gambled.
Additionally, young survey participants were asked about what other activities they are likely to engage in during their spare time. It appears the use of mobile devices and computers is a very common activity among young Brits, with 28% of the surveyed responding they prefer to chat online with their peers.
Meanwhile, 27% of the participants answered they spend their free time chatting on social media with friends while 12% played video games on their desktop computers, smartphones or tablets.
Various studies suggest that the extensive use of electronic devices like those mentioned above could be detrimental to young people. It could have a potentially harmful effect on their development, mentality, physical health, and social well-being.
Uk Gambling Participation Meaning
Attitudes towards Gambling and Reasons for Participation
Survey participants were also asked to explain the reasons why they have spent money on gambling in the past seven days. There are variations in the answers, but the most common reply (55% of respondents) was for entertainment, followed by boredom/hope for profit (31%), for the thrill associated with such activities (19%), for the risk (13%), and because of the personal example of a parent or a guardian (10%).
On a more positive note, the results of the survey clearly indicate there is a rising awareness among young Brits about the dangers and harms associated with gambling. As many as 60% of the minors age 11 to 16 confirmed they are well aware of the risks inherent to this type of entertainment.
Uk Gambling Participation Rules
Meanwhile, 59% of the kids agree gambling can be dangerous. The minors who answered negatively to the initial question were also asked why they have chosen not to partake in this form of recreation.
The answer that garnered the most responses (56%) was that underage gambling is illegal. Other common replies to this question were that the surveyed were disinterested in such activities, that they disagree with them altogether, and that it could lead to problems in their formative years. Some kids refrain from gambling because they fear this is not something their parents would want them to engage in.
Uk Gambling Participation Definition
Young Brits’ Exposure to Gambling-Related Ads and Sponsorships
The hot issue of gambling-related advertisements and sponsorships was also broached in the survey. Many of the participants confirmed they have been exposed to such ads on different media, with most minors (58%) reporting they have seen them on television.
The other common responses to this question include seeing gambling ads on the Internet (49%), on social media (43%), in the newspapers (30%), and on billboards (37%). As for the sponsorships, 42% of the surveyed responded they have seen such content on television or have heard about it on the radio.
To end on a positive note, the UKGC has already taken various preventive measures that aim to restrict the access of minors to gambling. May 2019 saw the enforcement of a new set of rules that require online gambling operators to perform stricter age and identity verification checks before newly registered customers can process their first deposits.
Under this rule, access to both practice and real-money gambling is completely restricted before the verification procedure is completed within the designated 72-hour timeframe. As for the advertisements, these are prohibited during live televised sporting events before the 9 pm watershed. The restrictions begin five minutes before the start of the games and end five minutes after.