Remote Gambling on the Increase – Its Official!

A paper published by the Gambling Commission in October 2008 saw an increase in remote gambling for the second year running. An omnibus survey of 2,000 adults over the age of 18 was conducted by ICM Research each quarter on behalf of the Gambling Commission to ascertain what levels remote gambling has now reached.

The results published show that to year end September 2008 a figure of 9.3% of the sample 8,000 adults questioned had remotely gambled via internet, mobile phone or interactively via digital television, which is an increase on the 2007 figure of 8.8% and the 2006 figure of 7.2%. Of the sample of adults questioned 90.5% had not participated in any form of remote gambling the remainder being ‘don’t knows’ or refusing to answer. The increase in part is accounted for by the National Lottery online service, therefore if the 3.9% of those participating remotely in the National Lottery are removed from the equation, the figure of participating adults drops to 5.4%, this is still an increase on year end 2007 at 5.2% and year end 2006 which shows a participation level of 5.1%.

Although questions regarding internet gambling have been asked since 2001, due to rapid developments in technology further questions have been included to allow for advancements in this area. These additional questions have revealed that PC, laptop and handheld devices account for 7.5% of participation, 2.7% have participated in mobile phone gambling and only 2% have gambled via interactive digital television. Men are shown as the most likely to gamble accounting for 11.8% of participants questioned and only 7% of women and the age range of those most likely to gamble remotely is18 to 44.

This information is of great use to the industry providing the opportunity for more targeted marketing of online gambling products and services.