Gambling Commission Enhances Insight into Player Behavior through External Partnerships
The UK’s Gambling Commission is taking significant steps to elevate its understanding of gambling behaviors by collaborating with various research firms. This new initiative is part of its consumer voice framework, designed to dive deeper into the motivations and demographics of gamblers.
This framework aims to bolster the Gambling Commission’s capacity for research, establishing partnerships with four specialized companies. These collaborations are intended to illuminate the diverse factors that influence gambling habits across different player segments.
The Consumer Voice initiative will receive support from Yonder Consulting, known for its mixed methodology research; Humankind Research, which focuses on qualitative studies; Savanta, a market research consultancy; and the UK’s Behavioural Insights Team. Eleanor Collerton, a senior advisor at the Behavioural Insights Team, expressed enthusiasm about the collaboration, emphasizing the team’s commitment to using experimental research to uncover fresh perspectives and fill existing knowledge gaps. Collerton noted the goal is to ensure that consumer insights play a pivotal role in shaping effective gambling policies, leveraging over five years of efforts to mitigate gambling-related harms in Great Britain.
Yonder Consulting has an established relationship with the Gambling Commission, having previously contributed to research on the unregulated market and the implications of promotional offers.
Each research partner has committed to a two-year contract, with the possibility of extensions extending to 2029. Laura Carter, the head of research at the Gambling Commission, remarked that these partnerships enable the organization to conduct high-quality research efficiently and adopt various methods to track emerging trends and potential risks in gambling.
“This Consumer Voice initiative is vital as it ensures our policies are reflective of real-life experiences and the changing landscape of gambling,” Carter stated.
Supplementing National Gambling Insights
The Gambling Commission noted that this consumer voice framework works in tandem with its national Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB). The latest GSGB report, released on May 22, indicated a decline in overall gambling engagement in the UK, showing a decrease of three percentage points from the preceding three months.
The report revealed that 46% of participants had engaged in gambling activities in the month prior to the survey—down from 49% according to a similar study by NatCen that concluded in October.
Concerns regarding the reliability of the GSGB led to a review by the UK Statistics Authority’s Office for Statistics Regulation. Their findings resulted in nine recommendations aimed at enhancing the study, including suggestions for improved quality assurance and transparency about potential biases in the data used for statistical releases. Despite highlighting these issues, the Office reaffirmed that there were no valid reasons to withhold the disseminated data.
In summary, the Gambling Commission’s strategic partnerships and enhancements to its research framework signal a commitment to understanding gambling behaviors more thoroughly, ultimately informing policies that better protect consumers and address emerging concerns in the industry.