The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) has published further data revealing that the British public has engaged less in gambling during national lockdown.
The data for April was collected from the UK’s biggest operators combined with YouGov‘s ongoing ‘COVID-19 tracker’ measuring public trends and habits in lockdown.
Citing general consumer trends, the UKGC underlined that lockdown ‘does not appear to have attracted new customers to gambling’ – with only 0.2% of adults surveyed stating that they had taken up gambling during the period.
Meanwhile, operator data on ‘overall activity’ indicated a 5% decrease in player activity recorded between March and April, reflecting the lack of sports wagering available to consumers.
Despite the drop in activity, the UKGC stated that ‘gambling participation has not fallen as drastically as anticipated at the beginning of the crisis’.
Surveying active players, the UKGC reported that 75% of gamblers had ‘no increase in time or money spent gambling’ (including National Lottery products).
However, as mentioned in its previous update, UK gambling consumers appear to be engaging in new products – a figure which has increased to 42% during April.
For active gamblers, new activities are driven by the National Lottery, with one in five surveyed claiming to have participated in weekly draws during the last four weeks.
Presenting its research, the UKGC explained that data is consistent with the first set of findings – “Overall participation[1] has decreased but some engaged players are spending more time and money gambling on certain products”.
Closing its statement, the UKGC said that it will continue to track and monitor risks by collecting the data to protect national consumers.
Source: SBC News
