Some 4,675 adults were surveyed for wave three of the GC’s GSGB, covering the three months to the end of October. The GSGB reports that 48% of respondents gambled at some point in the previous four weeks, level with both Q1 and Q2.
Commenting on the data during the Betting and Gaming Council’s AGM on 27 February, Gambling Commission CEO Andrew Rhodes noted a significant rise in activity on free prize draws, which are not regulated under the Lotteries Act and therefore not featured in the data or even considered gambling by law.
“We’ve seen the growth of large-scale prize draws and that growth has been very significant,” Rhodes told BGC members.
“We’ve also seen society lottery sales go over the £1 billion mark for the first time.”
He noted that price draw products are experiencing a participation level that is much higher than that of other gambling products, or products regulated as gambling.
“It’s getting close to being on a par with betting in terms of participation, also in terms of the average spending,” Rhodes said.
On the value of the GSGB data, Rhodes said these surveys, which have been collecting data since 2023, provide an insight into which products consumers are engaging with.
“The frequency of the gambling survey for Great Britain allows us to see these movements with a much greater degree, a much greater frequency, than we did before,” he added.
There has been some back and forth within the industry over whether free prize draws, like those offered by Omaze and Raffle House, should be regulated by the Gambling Commission.
While those on the side of licensed lottery believe these products have an unfair advantage in not having to adhere to the same rules on funding charities, those on the free prize draw side believe their products are not as high-risk and therefore should not be considered gambling.
Lottery still king in the UK
Data for Q3, published yesterday (27 February), shows 20% of respondents only took part in lottery draws. This, which covers both the National Lottery and other licensed charity lottery draws, is also level with Q2. When removing lottery-only players, overall gambling participation was 28%, the same as in Q2.
Again, male players between the ages of 45 and 54 were the most active group during Q3. However, after removing lottery-only players, the largest group was male consumers ages 25 to 34.
Overall, women were more likely to have gambled. Some 56% of the total players active in the past four weeks were women, compared to 44% men.
National Lottery was the most popular form of gambling by some distance at 31%, ahead of charity lottery at 16%. Next came scratch cards at 22%, then sports betting at 10% and online instant win games with 7%.
Non-lottery online gambling down in Q3
As for how people gambled, the percentage that played online was 38%. This is marginally ahead of 37% in the preceding period.
Again, however, this figure drops to 15% when removing all lottery-only players. The GSGB described this as a “significant decline” from the 17% reported in wave two, covering the Q2 period.
In terms of in-person activity, participation rate was down from 29% in wave two to 28%. After removing all lottery-only players, the rate stood at 18%, which is level with wave two.
Players continue to chase big wins
Looking at why people gamble, the main reasons remain very much the same among active players.
Of those who gambled in the past four weeks, the most popular reason for doing so was for the “chance to win big money”. Others also said they gambled because they see it as “fun”.
The next quarterly publication – wave four covering the three months to December – will be released on 22 May.
Original article: https://igamingbusiness.com/lottery/free-prize-draws-cannibalization-gsgb-uk-gambling-participation-q3/
