UKGC Highlights the Importance of GSGB Despite Its Flaws, Vows Improvements

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has issued a formal response to concerns over the accuracy of its Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB). While the commission acknowledged that there is room for improvement, it defended the survey due to the importance of understanding gambling harm.

OSR Said That More Work Is Needed

The UKGC responded to scrutiny from the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). As requested by the regulator itself, the OSR reviewed the results of the survey, assessing its compliance against the Code of Practice for Statistics.

The OSR acknowledged that the UKGC had put a lot of work into this survey and congratulated the authority had commissioned professor Patrick Sturgis as an independent expert. However, the OSR determined that there is room for improvement, per Sturgis’ own recommendations.

Significantly more work is needed to address the recommendations made by Professor Sturgis, and to better support the appropriate use of these statistics by better understanding, and more effectively communicating, the uncertainty of the GSGB estimates.

OSR statement

The OSR implied that the statistics, presented as they are, could overplay the actual severity of problem gambling in the UK.

UKGC Acknowledged GSGB’s Imperfections

In its response, the commission acknowledged that data from the GSGB has already been misused by certain politics. However, the UKGC defended the importance of the GSGB, despite its current flaws, and vowed to continue improving the survey.

Ben Haden, the UKGC’s director of research and statistics, commented on the matter. He stated that “changing any baseline for official statistics is challenging” and takes time for stakeholders to familiarize themselves with the new data source and other details. Haden added that this is doubly true for a sector as contentious as gaming.

While the UKGC acknowledged the need for continuous improvement, Haden said that he is pleased with the initial effect of the GSGB. According to him, these official statistics are have been widely cited and used by a variety of users, researchers, policy makers, media outlets and politicians.

Haden promised that his team will work hard on further improvements to improve the public’s confidence in the statistics.

We know some users lack confidence in the new methodology and where there have been examples where statistics from the GSGB have been used incorrectly, this report outlines how we are acting on this.

Ben Haden

Haden added that the work on the GSGB has continued since the publication of the first report. He thanked his team, which has worked on responding to user queries, engaging with those using the report, and analyzing the data.