GC to “continue to develop” Gambling Survey for Great Britain following LSE recommendations
Deputy CEO Sarah Gardner confirms comments from Professor Patrick Sturgis taken on board as regulator plans for July full release of new data set
The post GC to “continue to develop” Gambling Survey for Great Britain following LSE recommendations first appeared on EGR Intel.
The Gambling Commission (GC) has said it will continue to develop its new Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB) following recommendations from a specialist in statistics and survey methodology.
The regulator’s new data set, which is set to become the “baseline” for industry data, according to GC CEO Andrew Rhodes, was last month deemed “exemplary in all respects” by Patrick Sturgis, professor of Quantitative Social Science at London School of Economics (LSE).
The GC sought an independent review from Sturgis, in which he looked at the regulator’s pilot study of the GSGB between January and February 2022.
While the professor did back the shift in data collection away from quarterly telephone surveys, he did include seven key recommendations that the regulator must meet to “ensure public and stakeholder confidence in the quality and robustness of the statistics”.
Those recommendations included that the GC conduct research to better understand the relationship between the survey topic and the propensity of gamblers to respond to survey invitations.
Another point was for further research to explore the role of “socially desirable responding” that comes from self-completion studies.
Two further points, which Sturgis pegged as the highest priority alongside the aforementioned recommendations, include greater engagement with offline respondents and understanding the potential bias of online-only respondents.
Speaking at the Swedish Gambling Authority (SGA) conference today, 5 March, GC deputy CEO Sarah Gardner said the regulator had taken Sturgis’ guidance on board.
Gardner added that the inaugural GSGB annual report should be published in July, with the initial Wave One data published last month showing 48% of the population had gambled in the past four weeks.
The deputy CEO said: “Professor Sturgis has some key recommendations for the Commission to consider to ensure the quality and robustness of the statistics continues to build confidence and we will deliver against those.
“We are of course pleased he has described our work developing this methodology as ‘exemplary in all respects’, but we also note the risks he identified in having a new methodology and the caution that should be applied when seeking to draw precise conclusions.
“Last week’s publication means the GSGB is now a reality. We will continue to develop it over time, of course. But there is no turning back the clock and nor should there be.
“As Professor Sturgis makes clear, previous methodologies are no longer delivering like they used to and it is not credible to persist with a methodology that is outdated and has the gaps in evidence we have experienced.
“The Commission has taken the steps we needed to both safeguard and improve our data. Better evidence, driven by better data will lead to better regulation, which in turn will lead to better outcomes,” she added.
The post GC to “continue to develop” Gambling Survey for Great Britain following LSE recommendations first appeared on EGR Intel.
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