Gaming higher in deprived areas

PARTICIPATION in online gambling games is disproportionately concentrated in the most deprived areas of Great Britain - with these players more likely to incur heavy losses, a study has found.

Some 29% of gaming accounts are registered to the most deprived areas while 13% come from the least deprived areas, according to The Patterns of Play report, carried out by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) and the University of Liverpool for the charity GambleAware.

Some 25% of customer losses from gaming came from the 20% most deprived areas, while 15% losses came from the 20% least deprived areas.

Researchers analysed data from 139,152 online accounts for both gaming – including bingo, virtual and live casino, poker and slots as well as online betting on sport events – provided by seven major operators between July 2018 and June 2019.

Overall, betting – primarily on sports such as football and horseracing – was most popular in terms of numbers participating, but gaming was associated with a higher probability of incurring heavy losses. Of those who spent the most, a higher proportion had addresses in the most deprived neighbourhoods.