GCF questions UK Statistics Authority on UKGC figures

Added: September 26, 2023

The Gamblers Consumer Forum has recently raised a few concerns about certain figures presented by the UKGC to the UK Statistics Authority.

The GCF’s main concern related to one of the UKGC’s consultations into affordability checks, which is a part of the regulator’s efforts to implement the proposed changes brought forth a few months ago by the UK gambling legislation white paper. The organization focused on the number of accounts the UKGC stated that proposed affordability checks would affect, which is 3% of all betting accounts open in the country.

The GCF questioned the statistics regulator about what methods were used by the UKGC and the UK Government to arrive at the 3% figure, quoting that its understanding is that the figure was reached through research conducted in the period between the Spring of 2020 and 2021.

The GCF wrote that the consultation document published by the UKGC mentioned two main criteria for accounts that would be subject to affordability checks, which were binge gambling and sizable losses. The document quoted that the two reasons would impact 600 thousand and a million accounts respectively, however, the organization mentioned that a portion of the accounts would be affected by both, which introduces ambiguity in the final number of accounts that would be required to go through an affordability check.

Moreover, the GCF wrote in its letter that the UKGC used the figure in relation to the accounts that would be subject to affordability checks, mentioning that many gamblers have multiple playing accounts at different gambling businesses. The organization questioned whether representing the number of people potentially required to go through an affordability check as opposed to the number of accounts would be more appropriate and argued that the current measuring technique was only chosen to underrepresent the effect of the proposed reviews.

GCF, UKGC