Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment the Gambling Commission has made of the accuracy of the estimated number of problem gamblers.

This question was answered on 28th July 2021

As part of the Gambling Commission's duty under the Gambling Act 2005 to advise the government on gambling in Great Britain and provide an effective regulatory function, they collect gambling participation and problem gambling prevalence data via surveys of adults in Great Britain, principally the Health Surveys and quarterly telephone surveys. The data are published as official statistics and they are produced in accordance with the standards set out by the Government Statistical Service in the Code of Practice for Statistics.

The Health Surveys use a face to face methodology; and historically this methodology has provided the best means of delivering a random probability sample, which means every household listed on the Postcode Address File (a list of every point in the UK to which mail is delivered to) is given an equal chance of being selected to take part in the survey. Random probability sampling is generally regarded as the best method to achieve accurate population estimates. The Health Surveys include the PGSI and the DSM-IV screens for problem gambling, and a combined score from both presents an accurate picture of problem gambling. However, some challenges exist with the Health Surveys such as its relative infrequency so the Commission supplement the data with a quarterly telephone survey.

The quarterly telephone survey is currently the Gambling Commissions’ main measure of gambling participation (in the last four weeks) and is intended to supplement the high quality but less frequent prevalence measurement through the Health Surveys.. Telephone interviewing is a widespread method of running a nationally representative survey of a cross-section of the population. The short form PGSI screen is used within the telephone survey to measure problem gambling and the prevalence data compares reasonably closely to the Health Survey figures. However, there are a number of criticisms of telephone surveys, not least that it relies on respondents having telephone access (landline or mobile).

Having recognised some of the challenges above and as part of the Gambling Commissions’ ambition to improve the quality and robustness of their statistics, they have recently consulted on proposals to change the research methodology used to collect gambling participation and problem gambling statistics. The consultation responses indicated a high level of agreement with the proposals, and the Gambling Commission are in the process of commissioning a pilot to test a new approach. Their full response to the consultation is available here https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/print/participation-and-prevalence-research