In recent years, the online gambling sector has evolved enormously, to finally represent more than 10% of the profits made in this sector. But how do the Britons play, and what are their gambling habits?
This is what the Observatoire des Jeux (or the ODJ) tried to decipher by conducting a survey on the behaviour of online players. A study of 6,200 people provides more information on the most popular games, the average age of players, and the risks of addiction.
How Did the British Punters Spend Their Time During the Pandemic?
During the epidemic, major customs disappeared and others appeared in the UK, as in anywhere else. For example, for the first time in history, the British stopped going to sports betting shops and traditional casinos and turned to online casinos and bookmakers. The online gambling industry has achieved an abnormal boom which prompted the UKGC to impose more restrictions on operators and players to combat the problem of gambling addiction. Although the quarantine restrictions did not last long the decisions taken by the UKGC continued. At the moment, the British can choose between traditional gambling and virtual gambling, yet they still prefer playing online!
What Are the Gambling Habits of the British People?
The British are excellent lotto players! Imagine that one in two Britons bets the lottery on a regular basis. In other words, over 49% of British players are interested in the lottery. The lottery is the most popular form of betting in the UK. Certainly, it is self-evident! The lottery ticket costs no more than £2 and the minimum age is 18 to enter online or at lottery kiosks all over the UK. Most of all, the lottery offers millionaire prizes that are unmatched among other slot games.
In second place is sports betting, with a third of gamblers saying they will bet on sports online 33% per month. So you will find that most of the British gambling brands are famous for providing sports betting services, not casino games.
Demographically, the data tells us that players between the ages of 25 and 34 make up the largest share of sports bettors, while older players tend to bet on the lottery.
Fantasy sports betting is gaining in popularity as it competes with regular sports betting. While a strong emerging trend among the younger generations is betting on virtual sports.
What Are the Gambling Habits of the Britons?
It's hard to say if the Britons are good players, but it's safe to say that they like to play. According to this study conducted in 2016, the most popular games remain scratch cards and sports betting. A number that has slightly decreased in recent years, but which seems to be compounded by an increase in stakes (with an average of 10 euros per player, compared to 8 Pounds in 2014).
Online, it is above all the lottery that attracts more and more players. According to the survey conducted by the UKGC, 7 out of 10 players regularly play online lotteries (a category in which we also find scratch cards). Next come sports betting (more than 3 million players for a total bet of 7.5 billion in 2018), poker, and finally horse betting.
However, it is important to qualify these figures since they only concern sites authorised by UKGC. Either the platforms operated by the 15 companies that hold the famous licence. This de facto excludes non GamStop casinos, which are very popular but which are still not regulated in the UK.
This is also the major problem in the UK since a large majority of gambling sites in the UK are now considered illegal. Relative illegality is far from slowing down the Britons who access it - either with a VPN, or directly, and bet on it very regularly. According to the UKGC, 2 out of 10 players go there at least six times a month, since they do not incur any prosecution.
More & More Connected Players at Non GamStop Casinos
But the main trend that emerges from this survey is that Britons have resolutely migrated to online gambling sites. Indeed, the Games Observatory reveals that they represent more than 5% of the population (nearly 2.4 million players).
As well as growing in numbers, online gamblers also tend to be very active, spending an average of $1,500 per year. A tenth of these Britons fans of web games would even bet more than 3,100 over a year: a huge sum compared to the average Briton's salary. Moreover, uploads would have increased by nearly 20% in 2015 alone.
Are the Britons Addicted to Gambling?
The other question posed by this barometer is whether the Britons are not addicted to online gambling. And in this case, nearly 17% of them would be very dependent. Indeed, among the more than 2 million Britons who say they have already played online gambling and gambling, more than 45% do so diligently, i.e. at least once a week.
A bad habit that would be rather masculine, since 57% of online players are men. For some gambling games, this percentage will be even higher, especially when it comes to sports betting. The average player, contrary to what one might think, is also rather young and has a high level of education.
But it is the increase in the proportion of problem gamblers (at moderate risk for 10% of them, and excessive for the remaining 7) that worries observers. Indeed, addiction is all the stronger when gaming habits are online since less than 3% of traditional players are affected by this problem.
For the researchers, these results only confirm that the Internet represents a much higher risk of addiction. In particular, they advise the authorities to launch campaigns targeting the people most at risk, i.e. young people and the upper social categories.
