The Gambling Commission (GC) has welcomed the findings of the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) after it conducted a comprehensive review of the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB).
The OSR’s review into the survey was undertaken “at the request of the Gambling Commission to support its work to develop the GSGB”.
Patrick Sturgis, professor of Quantitative Social Science at the Department of Methodology at the London School of Economics, was previously enlisted by the regulator to review the GSGB’s methodology.
Last year, Sturgis published a report delivering his findings, along with seven recommendations for the GC to take on board.
These included conducting further research to understand the relationship between the survey topic and the willingness of bettors to respond to invitations to partake in such surveys.
Sturgis also suggested the GC take steps to assess the extent of potential bias in the subset of questions administered to online respondents only, in addition to carrying out research on the prevalence of gambling and gambling-related harm in groups that are excluded from the GSGB.
While the OSR was keen to praise the GC for involving Sturgis, it acknowledged that the regulator failed to provide enough information about how his recommendations will be addressed and embedded into future iterations of the survey.
The OSR also made reference to the guidance and technical report published by the GC into both the strengths and limitations of the survey, and how the statistics should be interpreted.
According to the statistics body, the GC failed to include any links to said guidance when releasing the findings from the survey.
The OSR also found that users of the survey wanted to know more about why they couldn’t make comparisons between the GSGB and previous GC surveys on the gambling industry.
Survey users contacted by the OSR also had differing views regarding “the degree to which they felt involved, and how the Commission has handled their feedback”.
An OSR statement read: “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.”
Around the time of the GSGB’s publication, the GC came under scrutiny for using potentially inaccurate data for the GSGB.
However, the OSR’s review found no such problems.
The statement added: “The GSGB has gone through extensive development to inform the current survey. While there are still some areas that require further exploration and improvement, we have not seen evidence to suggest that the statistics are not fit for publication.
“Currently, the GSGB provides the most regular estimates of gambling when compared to other surveys of this nature undertaken by official statistics producers.
“We consider that all statistics have strengths and limitations that are important for users to consider but that the existence of limitations does not necessarily indicate that the statistics are of poor quality.”
The OSR proceeded to list its nine recommendations for how the GSGB methodology could be improved.
One was that the GC should develop a more detailed improvement plan outlining how Sturgis’ recommendations will be implemented, as well as the inclusion of strengths and weaknesses of the survey, in addition to how the statistics should be interpreted, within the statistical release itself.
The OSR additionally called for the regulator to investigate the “coherence and comparability” of GSGB statistics with other data sources, create and implement a user engagement strategy and provide feedback and clear communication to users regarding their contributions.
Another recommendation was for the GC to broaden its stakeholder network and collaborate further with official statistics producers.
In response, the Gambling Commission has expressed appreciation of the assessment by the OSR.
Ben Haden, director of research and statistics at the GC, said: “We welcome the findings from OSR, both the public statement regarding casework they have received in relation to GSGB and their overall review of the GSGB.
“We are pleased they recognise the huge amount of work that the team has put into developing and delivering the largest survey of its kind in the world.
“We also welcome OSR’s recommendations for further action, which closely align with work that we already have underway.”
The GC stated it has already updated its guidance for users of the GSGB in February 2025 “with clearer examples and dedicated contact channels for questions or concerns”, as well as committing to promoting this guidance more widely and embedding it across all future releases of the survey.
The regulator has also announced plans to establish a GSGB Statistics User Group to serve as a forum for dialogue and feedback, with around 70 stakeholders already expressing their interest to join.
Furthermore, the GC has actioned a survey improvement plan updated with additional information for users, new survey questions “designed to validate GSGB findings against external data sources such as GAMSTOP and the Bingo Association” and improvements to accessibility and usability of GSGB outputs.
The post “Significantly more work needed” for Gambling Survey of Great Britain following OSR review first appeared on EGR Intel.
Gambling Commission welcomes the other positive findings from the Office for Statistics Regulation, but issues nine recommendations for the regulator to implement for future iterations of the survey
The post “Significantly more work needed” for Gambling Survey of Great Britain following OSR review first appeared on EGR Intel.