UKGC Hails OSR’s Review of the GSGB, Plans Improvements

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has welcomed the findings from the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) in relation to the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB). In response, the regulator vowed to implement new initiatives per the OSR’s recommendations.

The OSR Reviewed the GSGB

For context, the OSR was tasked with conducting a comprehensive review of the GSGB. The office praised the survey’s transparency, acknowledging the work that was put into it, and made certain recommendations to further enhance its reliability.

The GSGB is based on the UKGC’s official statistics on gambling behaviors in the country and is the culmination of the regulator’s efforts to ensure transparency within the industry. After developing the survey for several years, the UKGC asked the OSR to weigh in on the GSGB and review it against its standards in the Code of Practice for Statistics.

Among other things, the OSR pointed out the absence of an accredited official statistics status. However, it also acknowledged that this does not undermine the GSGB’s quality or reliability, despite some claims to the contrary.

In addition to that, the OSR acknowledged that the UKGC has done its best to remain transparent about both the strengths and limitations of its methodology and statistical approach.

UKGC Responds to Recommendations

According to the OSR, communication and user engagement will remain at the core of the GSGB’s ongoing success. Because of that, the UKGC is considering the creation of a new GSGB Statistics User Group which will be comprised of numerous industry stakeholders and will serve as a “forum for dialogue, feedback, and shared learning.”

In response to recommendations by the OSR, the UKGC has already implemented or considering a number of improvements. The improvements that the UKGC has already implemented include:

• survey improvement plan updated with further information for users
• new survey questions designed to validate GSGB findings against external data sources
• improvements to accessibility and usability of GSGB outputs

At the same time, the UKGC is planning the following improvements:

• comparisons with forthcoming datasets from the Health Survey for England and the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey
• publication of a communications strategy to improve how GSGB updates are shared
• ongoing improvements to accessibility and usability of GSGB outputs to be informed by GSGB stats user group

The UKGC noted that it is also working on improvements in line with recommendations from Professor Sturgis’s independent review.

The UKGC Was Pleased with the Review

Ben Haden, director of research and statistics at the UKGC, commented on the OSR’s review, welcoming the findings.

We are pleased they [the OSR] recognise the huge amount of work that the team has put into developing and delivering the largest survey of its kind in the world. We also welcome OSR’s recommendations for further action, which closely align with work that we already have underway.

Ben Haden, director of research and statistics, UKGC

In the meantime, the second GSGB annual report is set to be published on October 2, 2025.