UK Online Gambling at the Bottom After Four Years of Decline

The latest quarterly survey results of the UK Gambling Commission show that less people have gambled in September 2012 online than in the same period of last year.

In each quarter, 1,000 respondents are asked about their gambling habits. Two surveys are made every quarter, one focusing on all types of gambling, and the other one examining only the online gambling sector.

The most important finding: the traffic of online gambling sites in the UK reached their lowest level in the last four years.

Other key findings of the report say that until September 2012 only 12.4 percent of 4,000 adults have taken a part in least one form of online gambling in the previous four weeks, and half of them were exclusively National Lottery product users.

Excluding those, who play National Lottery products exclusively, 5.5 percent of the 4,000 respondents had participated in mobile casino games in the UK during the survey period.

Gamblers, who play online casinos in the UK (without National Lottery users) prefer using a computer, laptop or a handheld device (4.6 percent of the surveyed) for their activities. Gambling via mobile phone (2.1 percent) comes only second, and betting via interactive/digital TV (0.6 percent) was the third option according to the latest British gambling news.

The National Lottery was still the most popular remote gambling activity in 2012 with its 10.3 percent share, followed by National Lottery scratchcards betting and other lotteries.

The non-lottery betting (football, greyhound and horses) increased by only 2.1 percent compared to the same period of last year (2.7 percent), while gambling at online casinos in the UK went up with 0.7 percent compared to the 2011 data.

0.5 percent more gamblers used slot machines than in the same period in 2011, just like bingo, football pools (up 0.4 percent) and betting exchange (up 0.4 percent).