Gambling results included in English Health Survey for 2013Every year the British National Health service publishes the results of several surveys carried out to produce the Health Survey for England. These surveys are commissioned by the Health and Social Care Information Centre but for the first time ever the report published in December 2013 included a section concerning gambling that was commissioned by the Gambling Commission. The Gambling Commission was set up following the 2005 Gambling Act to regulate all forms of gambling in Britain including online gambling.

The chapter in the Health Survey for England that deals with gambling activity showed that including all forms of gambling, 61 per cent of women and 68 per cent of men in England gambled over the last year. If one excludes those who only gamble on the National Lottery, which is the most frequent form of gambling, the figures fall to 40 percent of women and 46 per cent of men who engaged in other forms of gambling. In figures this would be about 28 million people who gambled last year.Non casino forms of gambling made up the four most popular forms of gambling for both men and women according to the survey. However playing slot machines was the next most popular gaming activity for males. In general, the survey found that males tended to engage more in gambling activities than females and also that they had a broader base of such activities. Taking the results for both men and women into account and omitting the purchase of National Lottery tickets, the involvement in gambling activities was highest overall among those in the 16 to 34 year old age bracket.Since data on the prevalence of gambling was included for the first time it has been possible for the Health Survey for England to report on levels of problem gambling in the country. There are plans to produce a report on gambling and problem gambling in 2014. For both males and females there wasn’t any difference in the amount of gambling activity based on the level of poverty. The overall problem rates were 0.8 percent for men and at 0.2 percent for women. However in a different report the problem of betting at fixed odds betting terminals seems to be linked to areas of deprivation.