The UK Gambling Commission has revealed that improved monitoring of the bingo sector will be among next year’s enhancements to its Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB).
The regulator has already published several editions of its survey, which it claims will become the new standard for analysing every part of the industry in depth through data.
The headline statistics from the so-called ‘waves’ of data published so far have included the percentage of the population which has participated in any form of gambling in the last four weeks.
However, writing in a blog post, the UKGC’s head of statistics, Helen Bryce, revealed the bingo sector is in line for improved coverage in the survey from next year.
She said the GSGB will add a “new question,” developed in collaboration with the Bingo Association, which will “find out more” about the places people participate in bingo.
Bryce said the data will “deepen our knowledge of different parts of the sector.”
The UKGC will also be splitting up horseracing and dog racing into separate categories “so we can measure participation in each of these activities,” Bryce said.
Bryce reiterated the impending arrival of questions on consumer trust in gambling following research as part of the regulator’s Consumer Voice programme.
“Through changes to the way we collect regulatory returns, we’ll also soon be able to make improvements to the frequency and timeliness of our Industry Statistics publications – another core product in our wider evidence base,” she added.
“This means we’ll be in a position to analyse data from the GSGB alongside data from regulatory returns for the same time periods, so when we look at increases or decreases in participation for example, we can analyse the equivalent potential impact on gross gambling yield (GGY).
“These improvements are all part of the Commission’s plans to improve the core outputs we use within our evidence base.”
