by Renee Israel
The UK Gambling Commission released its latest statistics relating to British
gambling and showed that this form of entertainment is on the increase across
the country.
The Gambling Prevalence Survey, which covers the twelve months leading up to
March 2012, indicated that the most popular form of gambling among the British
is still the National Lottery.
Of the 4,000 adults interviewed by ICM Research, who performed the study on
behalf of the UK Gambling Commission, it was shown that 58.1% of them had
participated in some form of gambling in the past four weeks. This was a slight
increase from the 57.3% indicated in the same period in the previous year and
the 55.5% showed in the 2010 survey.
Out of all the kinds of gambling offered in the UK, including mobile, online
and terrestrial, the National Lottery is still the most popular, with 48% of
respondents saying that they regularly take a flutter through lottery tickets.
Scratch cards followed fairly far behind on the popularity scale (13%), ahead of
society/good cause lotteries (10.6%).
Next on the list was horse race wagering (4.3%), slot machine gambling (3.4%)
and private betting (3.3%).
The average British gambler is male and aged over 45 years.
UK Citizens Enjoy Remote Gambling
The UK Gambling Commission statistics released also focused on remote
gambling and showed that there was a slight dip in the number of British
partaking in this form of entertainment.
In the 2011, 12.4% of the adults surveyed said that they had participated in
at least one form of remote gambling in the past month, and the latest report
saw this number drop slightly to 12.2%. Of these, half the adults had played
the National Lottery online.
In the full year, 10% of those surveyed said that they had purchased tickets
for the National Lottery through remote methods (online or via their mobile
phones).
Removing the National Lottery from the equation showed that 5.4% of the
respondents participated in remote gambling.
Interestingly, those who gambled via remote methods were aged between 18 and
44, although here too, there were more male gamblers than female gamblers.
When enjoying remote gambling, UK residents preferred doing so via computer
or laptop (11%), followed by mobile phones (2.5%) and digital/interactive TV
(1%).
