Overview
At the time of this review, the Gambling Commission’s Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB) statistics are published as official statistics, not accredited official statistics. This review was accompanied by a supporting statement which addresses a number of specific concerns raised with OSR about the Gambling Survey for Great Britain.
The GSGB provides frequent, timely and comprehensive statistics on gambling activities, participation and the prevalence and impact of problem gambling in Great Britain. The GSGB aims to collect data from approximately 20,000 respondents annually, making it one of the largest gambling surveys globally. The survey is undertaken in waves, and in October 2025, the Gambling Commission is due to publish its second annual GSGB report. The first release of the statistics was in February 2024.
The GSGB statistics are used by a wide range of stakeholders, including individuals, communities, the gambling industry, academia, policymakers, regulators and the media, to help identify patterns in gambling behaviours and to support informed decision making. This review aims to make recommendations for improvements to the GSGB statistics; it is not an assessment of whether accredited official statistics status is appropriate.
Why we did this review
In December 2020, the Gambling Commission undertook a consultation to gather views on its proposal to develop a new survey to measure gambling behaviours. The aim of the new survey was to enhance the evidence base for decisions in Great Britain’s gambling sector, by using updated data collection methods and improving the timeliness and frequency of statistics on gambling.
Following a four-year development programme, in 2024, the Gambling Commission adopted a push-to-web approach and started publishing official statistics on gambling behaviours collected via the new Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB).
This compliance review, which assesses the GSBG statistics against the Code of Practice for Statistics, was undertaken at the request of the Gambling Commission to support its work to develop the GSGB.
The Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB)
The Gambling Commission published a timeline that details the development of the GSGB. The development included a pilot of the survey methodology, the findings from which were published in May 2022. This was followed by stakeholder engagement workshops, testing, question development, an experimental phase to refine the methodology, a webinar and blogs. In February 2024, the Gambling Commission removed the ‘in development’ label from the statistics and began publishing the new statistics as official statistics.
In February 2024, the Gambling Commission published the findings of a review that it commissioned from Professor Patrick Sturgis, London School of Economics (the Professor Sturgis review). The purpose of this review was to:
- assess the methodological approach used for the GSGB against best practice considering the context of current survey approaches
- analyse the likely impact of the methodological approach on estimates of gambling participation and prevalence of gambling harms
- make recommendations for improvement
Regarding the development of the GSGB, Professor Sturgis stated that “it has been exemplary in all respects”, and that given the high costs and declining response rates associated with in-person interview surveys, judged the move to self-completion to be “the correct decision”. The Professor Sturgis review goes on to make seven recommendations for “how the Gambling Commission should address the key remaining unresolved issues relating to how the shift to self-completion [the GSGB] has affected estimates of gambling behaviour”, stating that the first four recommendations (as listed below) should be considered of highest priority. These seven recommendations call for the Gambling Commission to:
- conduct research to better understand the relationship between survey topic and the propensity of gamblers to respond to survey invitations
- undertake additional research to better understand the role of socially desirable responding as the driver of the difference in gambling estimates between in-person and self-completion surveys
- undertake a randomised experiment to evaluate the effect of the updated list of gambling activities on estimates of gambling prevalence and harm
- take steps to assess the extent of potential bias in the subset of questions administered to online respondents only
- continue to monitor best practice developments in the area of within household selection of adults in push-to-web surveys
- carry out research on the prevalence of gambling and gambling harm in groups that are excluded from the GSGB because they are not included on the sampling frame
- seek opportunities to benchmark the estimates from the GSGB against a contemporaneous face-to-face interview survey in the future
To share progress on how it is acting on these recommendations, the Gambling Commission has created a survey improvement plan.
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Highlighted findings
The Gambling Commission has drawn on expert input in developing the GSGB, such as from the National Centre for Social Research and the University of Glasgow to design and collect the data for the survey, but also from Professor Patrick Sturgis to review the methodology. The Gambling Commission has been transparent in publishing the findings of the Professor Sturgis report, but not enough information is provided on how each recommendation will be addressed, the respective timescales and how the learning from this research will be embedded in future waves of the survey
To help user understanding, the Gambling Commission has produced guidance and a technical report which acknowledge the strengths and limitations of the survey, and how the statistics can and cannot be used. However, links to the guidance, and upfront information about Professor Sturgis’ conclusion regarding the non-negligible risk that GSGB statistics over-state the true level of gambling and gambling harm in the population, is absent from the statistical releases themselves
The Commission is very clear that direct comparisons between the GSGB and other surveys should not be used to assess trends over time, but our user engagement found that users want to understand differences and their causes
In developing the GSGB, the Gambling Commission carried out a significant amount of user engagement, but in our conversations with users there were differing views regarding the degree to which they felt involved, and on how the Commission has handled their feedback
The Gambling Commission has published a wealth of information about the background, planning and development of the GSGB, and disseminates the statistics through a variety of methods to accommodate different user needs
Our judgement
The Gambling Commission has undertaken a huge amount of work in developing and delivering the GSGB, and we commend the efforts and commitment of the team. In commissioning Professor Patrick Sturgis as an independent expert to review the GSGB methodology, the Gambling Commission has gained a valuable external perspective that identifies key areas of focus for the next phase of the survey development.
However, 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.
We have identified nine recommendations that the Gambling Commission should address to more strongly align the GSGB with the Code of Practice for Statistics.
Next steps
We expect the Gambling Commission to respond publicly to this report by July 2025, setting out its proposed actions and progress against each of the OSR recommendations stated here. We will continue to engage with the Gambling Commission regarding its planned improvements.
We are trialling new ways to make our judgements in OSR clearer and more transparent. This new overview page, at the start of reports and compliance checks, is part of this. We welcome your feedback – please email regulation@statistics.gov.uk.