Brit Remote Gambling Increases

The UK Gambling Commission have published their annual snapshot into the gambling habits of its residents and revealed that Brits thirst for remote gambling is on the increase.

In 2006, only 7.2% of UK residents had participated in any form of remote gambling service, including online lottery, casino, sportsbook, poker on any remote medium (internet, web tv, mobile phone). This percentage has increased substantially to 9.9% for 2009 (year to March), representing a more than 25% increase.

But before problem gambling groups start jumping up and down and believing the sky is falling, it should be noted that these numbers are skewed somewhat by the continued migration of National Lottery participants to online purchase methods. Taking out the lottery participants and looking at non-lottery remote gambling the change is a far more moderate 5.6% in 2009 versus 5.1% in 2006.

Men make up the bulk of gamblers, with 12.2% having bet online, compared with only 7% of women, and the age group with the most positive respondents was the 25 to 34 age category.

The Internet remains by far the most popular medium for remote betting, with 8.1% of respondents using it, followed by the fast increasing mobile phone coming in at 2.8%. Web TV remains steady in third place at just over 2%.

The study is compiled by ICM research whose data sample comprised 2000 UK adults surveyed in the March quarter of 2009.