It’s perhaps one of the most anticipated reports for the United Kingdom’s gambling industry – the Gambling Participation Report from the Gambling Commission. It informs online casinos and the like what the percentage of participation in their platforms has been for the year, as well as other information. This leaves personnel from the gambling industry to interpret the figures and potentially bring in new forms of action for their online sites.
The biggest thing to make mention of when it comes to the 2017 report is that the overall percentage of people opting to gamble throughout the year declined. The year of 2016 saw an amount of 45% of people gambling, while 2017 sees a decrease of 3%, down to 42%. That being said, while the overall participation in gambling may have seen a drop, there were promising figures in the mobile gambling sector.
Of those people opting to play online casino games, 51% of them said that in 2017, they decided to do so via their smartphone or tablet, rather than access desktop casino sites. This is quite a spike in activity, considering that this figure in 2016 only stood at 43%. Furthermore, those players choosing to gamble specifically online rather than anywhere else, remained at a 14% level. However, the mobile market once again showed greater growth figures.
More Good News for the Mobile Gaming Industry
The 2017 Gambling Commission report also made suggestions that these mobile devices are also surpassing desktop computers as methods of gambling. Roughly half of the respondents stated that they utilised their laptop to gamble online during 2017, showing a 10% decline from 2015. And as far as PCs go, a much smaller response rate was apparent, standing at 33%.
However, between 2016 and 2017, an increase of mobile gaming users was seen, with figures going from 43% up to 51%. Further to this, those players who choose to only play casino games and access gambling via their smartphone or tablet rose from 29% up to 39%. It is this information that shows how popular mobile gaming is today, with UK residents opting for an easy-access from anywhere choice over staying at home on a computer to play games, such as slots or roulette.
To add to the success of the mobile gaming sector, the report also placed a little bit of focus on social elements. It provided results stating that 0.8% of its respondents had identified themselves as problem gamblers last year. Additionally, 3.9% of them categorised themselves as being “at-risk” and 6% took the decision to self-exclude.
Alongside this information, the report showed a higher number of older consumers choosing to gamble in 2017 too. An increase of players aged between 55 and 64 went up to 46%, while those of 65 years of age or older also inclined, showing a 28% figure for 2017.
