On 24 July 2025, the Gambling Commission published its review of the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (“GSGB”) and response to the Office for Statistic Regulation (“OSR”) report. The GSGB sets out the Gambling Commission’s official statistics on gambling behaviours in Great Britain, and in our previous blog, we reported on the OSR’s review of the GSGB and their recommendations to the Gambling Commission.

The Gambling Commission’s review reflects on the first year since the publication of the GSGB and how the data is delivering against the Gambling Commission’s aims and expectations. The paper also responds to the OSR’s assessment of the GSGB, and details plans for its ongoing development.

How the GSGB is being used

One aim of the GSGB was for it to be a source of robust data, available to be analysed and used by stakeholders. The Gambling Commission reports that between February 2024 and March 2025, a total of 5,271 users have visited the GSGB pages on the Gambling Commission’s website; the majority of those users are based in the UK, although there has been some international interest as well.

In line with the Gambling Commission’s aim to be open and transparent with GSGB data, the raw data from the GSGB was submitted to the UK Data Service and subsequently published on 19 February 2025. The Gambling Commission recognises that numerous studies and reports have been published that include GSGB data, as well as the GSGB playing “an important role in contributing to policy developments relating to gambling”, including a Parliamentary debate on gambling harms in February 2025.

Response to OSR’s assessment of the GSGB

As discussed in our previous blog, the Gambling Commission asked the OSR to review the GSGB against its standards in the Code of Practice for Statistics. The Gambling Commission addressed the recommendations of the OSR, setting out progress made to date and future intended actions:

1. Actions in response to Professor Sturgis review

The Gambling Commission reported that since the OSR review, the National Centre for Social Research (“NCSR”), Professor Sturgis and Professor Kuha of the London School of Economics and Political Science have been commissioned to undertake experimental research to implement the recommendations in Professor Sturgis’ independent assessment of the GSGB, published in February 2025. The experimental research is due to be published in Summer 2025 with the second GSGB report scheduled to be published on 2 October 2025, to allow time for feedback to be incorporated into the report.

The survey improvement plan has also been updated to explain that the Gambling Commission will be able to benchmark results from the GSGB against the 2024 Health Survey for England (“HSE”) (once published) and against the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (“APMS”) which was published in June 2025.

2. Quality assurance

The Gambling Commission sets out that the GSGB data undergoes quality assurance by the NCSR followed by further quality assurance undertaken by the Gambling Commission, as detailed on its website.

The Gambling Commission will shortly be publishing a new research governance framework, which will underpin quality assurance and research quality, and notes the importance of validating data against other sources; for example the GSGB Annual Report 2023 included, for the first time, data on suicidal ideation/attempts and if they were related to gambling, which was validated against the data in the APMS.

The Gambling Commission will update the GSGB technical report to include a section on data validation by October 2025.

3. Supporting appropriate use

The Gambling Commission has been monitoring the use of GSGB data, and notes that there have been some common mistakes.  Within statistical releases, the Gambling Commission will make it clearer to users that the GSGB produces estimates and these estimates are subject to potential biases; also that the negative consequences of gambling may be overestimated.

Based on early feedback from the OSR of the existing GSGB guidance, the Gambling Commission updated its guidance on using statistics from the GSGB in February 2025 to explain what statistics can and cannot be used for, and why. The Gambling Commission also intends to make it easier for users to find this guidance, and adding links to the guidance from the statistical landing pages and the Excel data tables shall be standard practice going forward.

4. Coherence and comparability

In its guidance, the Gambling Commission cautions against comparing GSGB data against the data from previous surveys, due to differences in study methodology, but acknowledges that such comparisons are nevertheless useful. It notes that the publication of the next APMS and HSE and further recommendations from the Professor Sturgis review (see 1 above) will provide further opportunities to investigate the coherence and comparability of GSGB statistics. 

The Gambling Commission will be publishing a new evidence roadmaps framework, together with its research governance framework, scheduled for September 2025.

5. Engagement and communication

The OSR recommended that the Gambling Commission should implement a user engagement strategy. The Gambling Commission reported on the transition from the previous stakeholder engagement groups into the GSGB Statistics User Group, to enhance communication and engagement with users of the GSGB and allow the exchange of views, ideas and information between users and the Gambling Commission, share research findings and inform the continued development of the GSGB.

Following feedback from the OSR, a dedicated email address has been set up to receive feedback or queries in relation to the GSGB ([email protected]). The Gambling Commission encourages users to get in touch via the dedicated email address, or to provide ongoing feedback via a feedback form or by joining the GSGB Statistics Users Group.

The Gambling Commission also appended to the paper their communications strategy for the ongoing publication of statistics from GSGB.

6. Accessibility and usability

The Gambling Commission will continue to publish data from the GSGB in a variety of formats accessible on the Gambling Commission’s website, and to the UK Data Service so other researchers can access it. From October 2025, hyperlinks will be incorporated from the contents page to the relevant table of data.

Other post launch GSGB development work

Whilst reviewing the content for the 2025 GSGB questionnaire, the Gambling Commission has added questions on the following topics:

• Consumer trust in gambling.
• Unlicensed gambling.
• Bingo, to understand the locations in which bingo is played in person.
• Whether respondents have registered with GAMSTOP. 

Next steps

We encourage readers to read the Gambling Commission’s full response to the OSR’s review of the GSGB ahead of the second annual report due to be published in October 2025. Please get in touch with us if you have any questions on the GSGB and sign up to our blog to receive updates on the ongoing development of the GSGB.