A recent article in the Racing Post has highlighted the extent to which the inflated problem gambling statistics contained with the Gambling Survey of Great Britain has already caused potentially irreparable damage to an industry that is struggling beneath the weight of underserved reputation.

The Racing Post’s industry editor Bill Barber has pointed to widespread misuse of the (now widely discredited) Gambling Survey of Great Britain Data within mass media, and warned that the consequence of the spread of this misinformation could amount to “bad gambling policy.” 

Barber has highlighted recent prominent examples of selective data use by Labour MPs Catherine Fookes and Alex Balling, both of whom cited the GSGB in claiming that “2.5 per cent of the population are considered to be problem gamblers.” 

This figure was also cited by anti-gambling campaigner Will Prochaska on the BBC earlier this month, as well as by LBC presenter Clare Foges. 

None of whom, we understand, have been pulled up by the Gambling Commission, which by its very own admission, has said this core finding of the GSGB should be used “with caution,” due, we assume, to the fact that it represented a massive, unprecedented surge on what the previous data-set (the NHS Health Survey for England) suggested the true prevalence of gambling addiction was throughout the population (just 0.4 per cent). 

By means of explanation, the regulator has said that changes in its methodology and data classification had likely led to the leap in the problem-gambling quota, and that it would take action against any misinterpretation, deliberate or otherwise, of its new findings within the media. 

However, for Barber, not only is the regulator proving woefully inept at correcting the prevailing narrative about gambling in the press, but the damage to the prestige of the sector may have already been done. 

“It’s fair to say not everybody is listening to the Gambling Commission and that its ability to effectively police interpretation of the data has proven predictably inadequate,” he wrote recently. “Unfortunately, any nuance in the debate on problem gambling has now long since been lost. The Gambling Commission are seemingly unable to stop those who wish to misuse a single eye-catching but highly questionable statistic, and the potential ramifications for a beleaguered racing industry are enormous.”

Heavyweight industry consultancy Regulus Partners seem firmly in agreement: and have pointed to the inevitable requests from the usual suspects for government to take a hardline with operators. 

“Predictably, the GSGB is already being used by campaigners who wish to reopen the Gambling Act review and introduce far more draconian restrictions on consumers and operators, including a complete ban on all forms of advertising,” weighed in the firm’s partner Dan Waugh. “The commission’s decision to publish unreliable survey results could prove to have massive ramifications.”

Regulation by PC Plod? 

Bill Barber said… “It’s fair to say not everybody is listening to the Gambling Commission and that its ability to effectively police interpretation of the data has proven predictably inadequate. Unfortunately, any nuance in the debate on problem gambling has now long since been lost. The Gambling Commission are seemingly unable to stop those who wish to misuse a single eye-catching but highly questionable statistic, and the potential ramifications for a beleaguered racing industry are enormous…