The UK Gambling Commission is facing criticism over contradictions in its youth gambling survey data. Analyst Dan Waugh of Regulus Partners identified a problem: 7% of children who saw gambling ads — around 5% of the total sample, or some 200,000 people — said advertising prompted them to spend money on gambling. Most of those same respondents reported zero gambling spend elsewhere in the survey.
When Waugh asked for clarification, the Commission said the question measured 'feelings', not actual behaviour. A respondent might feel an impulse without acting on it. The wording put to children, however, was different: 'Has gambling advertising ever prompted you to spend money on gambling when you were not planning to?' No mention of unfulfilled intention. The plain reading is that money was spent and the ad worked.
That figure has already been used in Parliament by advocates of stricter curbs, including Professor Heather Wardle, who heads the Gambling Harms Research Centre. In 2023 the Commission itself cited the same 7% in its advice to government on advertising restrictions, presenting it as real spending by children. Now that the data is under scrutiny, the interpretation has shifted to 'feelings'.
Waugh also found other anomalies: six children, one of them 12, reportedly spent money on all 17 categories of gambling in a single week — lotteries, sportsbooks, online casinos. The Commission insists those responses passed quality checks. It has promised an independent methodological audit in spring 2027.
In August 2023, Commission chief executive Andrew Rhodes publicly urged the industry not to manipulate statistics. It seems the same standard does not apply internally.
