Gambling participation and the prevalence of problem gambling survey

The Gambling Commission is undertaking a project to improve the way it collects data on adult gambling participation and the prevalence of problem gambling. The project started in 2021 with a pilot survey and this report summarises the findings from the experimental stage of the project.

The purpose of the experimental statistics phase was to build on the pilot and conduct further testing and refinement, to ensure the survey design and questionnaire content is robust for official statistics continuous data collection.

The experimental statistics phase involved three steps:

• Step 1 - experiments on participant selection and gambling-related harm questions.
• Step 2 - testing different approaches to asking about gambling participation.
• Step 3 - final test of agreed approach and content taking on board recommendations from step 1 and step 2 (not yet started).

Subject to the success of the experimental phase, the survey will move, in summer 2023, to continuous official statistics data collection. This report outlines the experimental stage methodology and analysis for steps 1 and 2. The report also makes recommendations for the next phases.