UK Gambling Commission faces push to improve UK survey data
The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has welcomed the findings of a comprehensive review by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) into its flagship . In what it called the largest survey of its kind in the world, the Gambling Commission has received praise for the scope, transparency and ambition of the GSGB project. The OSR did, however, issue several recommendations to strengthen user trust, clarify limitations, and refine methodology.
Independent assurance and public scrutiny
The GSGB, launched formally in 2024 after four years of development, is now the UKs primary data source for gambling participation and harm. Authorities collect the GSGB via a push-to-web model and publish it as official statistics. The GSGB fully complies with transparency standards, but the OSR has not yet designated them as National Statistics. Policymakers, academics, operators, regulators and health services use these across Great Britain. The GSGB collects data from around 20,000 respondents annually, making it one of the largest gambling behaviour studies worldwide.
In response to stakeholder concerns and to benchmark its approach, the Gambling Commission invited the OSR to review the GSGB against the UKs Code of Practice for Statistics.
Ben Haden, Director of Research and Statistics at the UKGC, said:
We welcome the findings from OSR, both the public statement regarding casework they have received in relation to GSGB and their overall review of the GSGB. We are pleased they recognise the huge amount of work that the team has put into developing and delivering the largest survey of its kind in the world and we also welcome OSRs recommendations for further action, which closely align with work that we already have underway.
Recommendations from OSR
The OSRs review supported many of the conclusions reached in the earlier independent assessment by Professor Patrick Sturgis of the London School of Economics and Political Science, who commended the shift from face-to-face interviews to self-completion surveys as the correct decision.
The OSR echoed Professor Sturgiss conclusion that there is a non-negligible risk that self-completion survey methods may overstate the prevalence of gambling harm. The OSR also noted that this critical caveat was missing from some headline statistical releases.
However, both reviews flagged several ongoing challenges, including:
- Communicating the statistical uncertainty and possible bias in self-reported responses.
- Clarifying and communicating the potential overestimation of gambling harm because of the self-completion format.
- Strengthening user guidance and visibility of limitations in headline publications.
- Increasing transparency over timelines and implementation of survey improvements.
- Preventing inappropriate comparisons with other datasets, such as the Health Survey for England.
- Cautioning against misinterpretation, the Gambling Commission and OSR warned that GSGB data is unsuitable for tracking trends over time, given its break from previous methodologies.
The UKGC has committed to publishing a full response in July 2025 and updating its improvement plan to reflect both OSR and Sturgiss recommendations.
The OSR set out nine recommendations aimed at bringing the GSGB into stronger alignment with the Code of Practice for Statistics, covering communication, transparency, methodological review, and user engagement.
Whats already been actioned?
The Gambling Commission has already taken steps to act on earlier feedback, including:
- Publishing a February 2025 user guide with clearer FAQs and contact channels
- Launching an experimental study in April 2025 to test specific methodological assumptions
- Adding new survey questions designed to validate GSGB findings against external sources, including Gamstop and the Bingo Association.
- Improving accessibility of outputs by embedding direct links to user guidance across all GSGB statistical releases, including those published on 22 May 2025.
Plans are also underway to benchmark GSGB data against other public health and psychiatric datasets, including the Health Survey for England and the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey, both due for release later in 2025. The Gambling Commission will also release a dedicated communications strategy aimed at sharpening how GSGB updates reach both stakeholders and the wider public.
With over 70 stakeholders already signed up, the GSGB Statistics User Group will offer an ongoing space for transparent dialogue, methodological input, and sector-wide learning. Feedback from this group will directly inform further improvements to the accessibility and usability of future GSGB outputs. The OSR noted that despite the UKGC’s extensive engagement during GSGB development, some stakeholders felt their views were inadequately represented in the final design and outputs.
Participation trends: what the latest wave shows
Lottery-based activity continues to dominate gambling participation figures, particularly online. Alongside the review, the Gambling Commission released its latest statistical bulletin covering Year 2, Wave 4 (data collected between September 2024 and January 2025). Key findings include:
- Overall gambling participation fell to 46 percent, down from 49 percent.
- Lottery-only players comprised 19 percent of respondents.
- Excluding lottery-only gamblers, participation was stable at 28 percent.
- When lottery-only participants were removed, males aged 18 to 24 emerged as the most active gambling group in the past four weeks.
- The most popular activities after lotteries were scratchcards (12 percent), betting (10 percent), and online instant wins (7 percent).
- Excluding lottery-only players reduced overall online gambling participation from 37 percent to 17 percent. This highlights how heavily online gambling statistics are driven by lottery-based activity. The UKGC subsequently offered a clearer explanation of how to define and report lottery-only players.
- The most popular online gambling activities were buying tickets for a National Lottery draw (23 percent), charity lottery draws (13 percent), and sports or racing bets via an app or website (9 percent).
- The 28 percent participation rate, excluding lottery-only players, has remained stable across all waves of the survey throughout 2024.
Like all survey-based statistics, GSGB figures are subject to a margin of error. The Commission uses 95 percent confidence intervals to express the potential variability in its estimates.
The next publication, Year 3 Wave 1, is due in October 2025 and will likely incorporate findings from the ongoing experimental study. The Commission will receive results from its experimental fieldwork study, launched in April 2025, this summer. These findings will directly inform the second GSGB annual report, due on 2 October 2025.
A foundation for future reform?
While not yet accredited as National Statistics, the GSGBs new format appears to be gaining trust through transparency and responsiveness. The Gambling Commission and OSR reiterated that the proper way to judge data quality is by its fitness for purpose, not just by its label. As part of its transparency agenda, the Commission has also published a log of all stakeholder data requests relating to the GSGB and will update it quarterly. Recent enforcement actions, including the Gambling Commissions revocation of TGP Europes license, have reinforced that regulatory intent.
With reforms unfolding and scrutiny intensifying, the GSGB now serves as a policy anchor guiding regulation, shaping risk frameworks, and rebalancing the national gambling narrative.
