Gamstop Receives Record Number of Registrations
Gamstop has recorded its highest number of new registrations since its launch in 2018, despite UKGC figures which show a stable 0.2% problem gambling rate. Three hundred seventy-one people registered for the self-exclusion tool on 1 July alone, the highest single day figure.
Self-Exclusion Tool Sees Record Registrations © Pixabay.
Gamstop, the self-exclusion tool for UK gambling sites, has recorded its highest number of daily registrations in its four-year existence.
Gamstop is offered by a not-for-profit organisation, The National Online Self-Exclusion Scheme Limited, which has released data for the first half of 2022, which showed 43,5000 new subscribers. This figure represents a 9% year-on-year increase compared to 2021.
Although males were the gender most likely to use the service, in February, women made up almost a third of new registrations (30%), a figure that also matches Gamstop’s user base (70% men, 30% female).
Data from age sets show a 5% increase in youngsters registering for the free tool. In the second quarter of 2022, nearly 60% of users (58%) were 24 or under.
Gamstop CEO, Fiona Palmer, said: “Our most recent data suggests gambling-related harm remains a serious problem, and it is widely accepted that action is needed to protect those most at risk. We are now recording an average of more than 7,000 new registrants each month, which is almost a double-digit increase YoY.”
Coincidentally the UK Gambling Commission announced their statistics on problem gambling rates for the UK. The regulator believes problem gambling rates are stable for the year at 0.2%. This figure is half of the 0.4% that the UKGC published for the same period last year.
The regulator came to this figure using the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI), specifically developed for use among the general population by Jackie Ferris and Harold Wynne in 2001. It was initially designed for the Canadian market.
The UKGC conducts telephone interviews with members of the public and asks them nine questions, and each item is assessed on a four-point scale: never, sometimes, most of the time, and almost always.
A never answer scores zero, sometimes scores one, most of the time scores two and almost always attracts three points.
When assessing the answers, a score of one or two represents ‘low risk’ gambling (Gamblers who experience a low level of problems with few or no identified negative consequences). Scores between three and seven represent ‘moderate risk’ gambling.
In contrast, a PGSI score of eight or more means a problem gambler. This number is the threshold recommended by the developers of the PGSI and is the threshold used by the UGGC when reporting.
The questions used to determine the level of risk are;
- Have you bet more than you could really afford to lose?
- Have you needed to gamble with larger amounts of money to get the same feeling of excitement?
- When you gambled, did you go back another day to try to win back the money you lost?
- Have you borrowed money or sold anything to get money to gamble?
- Have you felt that you might have a problem with gambling?
- Has gambling caused you any health problems, including stress or anxiety?
- Have people criticised your betting or told you that you had a gambling problem, regardless of whether or not you thought it was true?
- Has your gambling caused any financial problems for you or your household?
- Have you felt guilty about the way you gamble or what happens when you gamble?
Speaking at the Westminster Media Forum 2022 in June, CEO of the Gambling Commission, Andrew Rhodes, admitted that the problem gambling data the regulator issued was different from Health survey data. Their data showed the actual figure for problem gambling was more than 200% higher than UKGC data.
Rhodes said: “Now I’ve touched on harm there, but those of you listening closely will have noted I didn’t mention our statistics for gambling harms. The same statistics we published that give a participation rate of 43% also say that just 0.2% of the population are currently termed problem gamblers.
“That figure has come down over the last few years, which is, of course a good sign. But it is one we have only cautiously welcomed. Whilst our telephone survey is our official statistic, we also look to the Health Survey data for England, Scotland and Wales for problem gambling data, and the last set of combined survey results conducted in 2018 suggested 0.7% of the population were problem gamblers.”
A YouGov poll conducted in March also contradicted the regulator’s official statistics and came to a figure closer to the Health Survey data. As a result, the UKGC has promised to introduce a new way to measure problem gambling prevalence.
