Great Britain mobile gambling participation sees 6% increase for 2019; industry trust down

In an annual gambling participation report released by the Gambling Commission, the percentage of participants who had engaged in mobile gambling in Great Britain over a four-week period was found to have risen 6% from 2018, to 50%.

Great Britain mobile gambling participation sees 6% increase for 2019; industry trust down

The total number that had gambled online was up 3% at 21%, and 56% of those online gamblers had more than one online account, with an average of three online accounts for every participant.

Total gambling participation in Great Britain rose 1% from 2018, with 47% of respondents confirming they had gambled in the past four weeks.

This figure dropped to 32% when excluding those who had only gambled on the National Lottery draws.

The National Lottery draws remained the most popular gambling activity, while football and horseracing were the most popular sports betting activities.

The proportion of respondents who had seen a gambling advertisement on television in the past week was down 3% at 51%.

However, trust in the industry was down, with 43% of participants associating gambling with crime, up 5% from 2018, and 29% believing gambling to be fair and trustworthy, down 1% at 29%.

The report was based on quarterly telephone and online tracking surveys conducted by Populus on behalf of the Gambling Commission.

The latest data from the NHS Digital Health Survey for England estimates a current national problem gambling rate of 0.5%.

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Owain Flanders
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Owain Flanders is a journalist who spent over a year with Gambling Insider, first joining as an Editorial Intern in August 2019 before progressing to Staff Writer from November 2019 to December 2020. During his tenure, he covered a wide range of developments across the global gambling and iGaming sectors, producing original news stories, in-depth features and analytical pieces for the Gambling Insider website and its bi-monthly magazine.

Owain interviewed CEOs, analysts and senior marketing executives on emerging trends, regulatory issues and commercial strategy, bringing authoritative insight to a professional B2B audience.

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