The Gambling Business Group has published its latest ‘Facts and Figures’ report that addresses the growing amount of misinformation currently circulating about the land based sector. Charlotte Meller, General Manager of the GBG, talks Coinslot through the correction process and how important it is to call misinformation out.
The Gambling Business Group has this week started the roll-out of its July 2025 edition of ‘The Facts & Figures for land-based gambling in Great Britain’.
The document has been prepared by the trade body to correct false information cited about the high street gaming and gambling sector and will be updated regularly as new official data is published.
The summer ’25 despatch is a timely one with many regarding the HSC Select Committee session, held in the Houses of Parliament the day after April Fool’s Day, as the low point in the widespread use of false information in the gambling debate. During the sessions key figures drawn from the political, health, educational, local authority and regulatory arenas freewheeled their way through uncorroborated and on many occasions false data on the industry.
Charlotte Meller, General Manager of the Gambling Business Group, headed the team compiling the trade body’s latest gambling facts document. She believes correction is crucial if the Gambling Act Review, currently heading towards the final turn, is going to achieve effective modernisation of the industry.
“The narrative and the facts in the gambling debate have never been so far removed from one another as they are now,” she said. “The recent HSC evidence hearings were a disappointing example of the widespread use of false information particularly from people who should – and must know better.”
She continued: “Our document has been drawn from all the official records on gambling produced by the Gambling Commission, the DCMS, the NHS and the Office for Statistics Regulation. This authenticated data is readily available to politicians, parliamentary committees, third sector organisations, elected councillors and the general public,” she replied. “To disregard or dismiss these official facts and figures and opt to consistently reference unsubstantiated and incorrect information is a dangerous step. It’s good headline material but it does not reflect reality.”
The GBG report addresses the key areas of the current wave of false analysis doing the rounds, notably the concept of gambling venue proliferation, increasing gambling spend, rising machine numbers and problem gambling levels.
And it is an eye-opener for those that have been listening to local MPs and council leaders currently urging for stronger restrictions on the gaming and gambling sector. In their narrative, gambling venues are increasing ‘beyond control’; punters are spending more money than ever on gambling, machines are flooding on to the high street and problem gambling is out of control.
Not so according to official data from the regulator, the NHS and local authorities, as GBG highlights in the July 2025 ‘Facts & Figures’ edition.
Their figures paint the real and somewhat concerning picture of a systematic decline in venues on the high street – down by one third in the last 15 years; a fall in GGY to a level lower than 2008; no change in machine numbers; and a stable pattern of problem gambling figures over the last ten years running at between 0.3-0.7 percent according to the NHS quarterly survey rather than the 2.5 percent being touted.
On that last point in particular, the GBG’s document includes important detail on the story behind the statistics, notably the current status of the Gambling Commission’s Gambling Survey for Great Britain whilst we wait for the Sturgis and OSR recommendations to be implemented, and the shift in machine ratios in land-based venues.
So where do the facts leave us?
Charlotte Meller is stoical on this: “We engage with many of the groups and political bodies in the gambling arena on a regular basis and we consistently raise the authenticated statistics. In many cases it does shift the argument on to evidential grounds and a number of MPs and local councillors are beginning to understand that a false narrative does significant harm to the regeneration of the high street economy”
“ It’s not just about the 82,000 people the industry employs currently, it’s also about the thousands more the industry wants to employ and the millions of pounds the industry wants to invest in local economies by opening up shuttered shops and driving footfall to high streets.”
The GBG’s ‘The Facts & Figures for land-based gambling in Great Britain’ is available on the body’s
website.
• No proliferation:
Gambling venues on the UK high streets have fallen by one third over the last 13 years – 12,307 in 2011, down to 8,329 in March 2024
• A fall in Gambling Yield:
Gambling yield in the UK is lower now than it was in 2008/9 – GGY in 2023/4 was £4648m, in 2008/9 it was £4883m
• Machines in statis:
There are 202,000 machines on the high street
• Gambling out of control?:
Gambling activity in the quarter September 24 to January 25 fell from 49 percent to 46 percent. In house gambling accounts for 28 percent of gambling activity; when you exclude all lottery only players, just 18pc play in high street venues
• Problem Gambling remains statistically stable and may be reducing:
Since 2007 the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) has been used to estimate the population prevalence of problem gambling in GB. Data collected via the NHS Health Surveys showed rates were consistently in the range of 03pc-0.7pc over that period.
