UKGC survey finds most people aren’t influenced by free bets or spins offers

In a survey commissioned by the UKGC, it was found that most people revealed they aren’t influenced by free bets or slot spins.

However, a significant proportion of those surveyed did say that these promotions did cause them to gamble more than they intended to.

The participants of this survey were sourced through a panel created by Yonder Consulting, which collects data on 8,000 people in the UK every year.

A majority of 61% said that their gambling was not influenced by free bets or spins offers. However, 31% of people said that receiving emails or alerts about free bets or spins encouraged them to gamble more than they would have liked to.

The survey found that younger people were more likely to be affected by these offers. Of those younger people surveyed, 39% of 18-24-year-olds admitted to being incentivised to gamble more through free bets. In the next age group up, 25-34-year-olds, this percentage increased to 46%.

It was also found that 35% of people surveyed had gambled with an operator that they had not previously gambled with before as a result of a bonus offer, and 28% reported gambling on a new game as a result of an offer.

Over two-thirds of gamblers had received some form of incentive over the last 12 months, with the most common one being free bets/spins and sign up offers, most of which were received via email.

Targeted social media adverts accounted for 21% of offers received whilst text messages made up 17%. App notifications 16%, app notifications 16%,  targeted search engine ads 15% and non-gambling app notifications 8%, made up the rest of the list.

Among those people who had received incentives in the last year, almost three quarters had received them for online betting. Online slots was the second-highest activity incentivised at 39% and online bingo came in third with 37%.

Last week, the UKGC reminded operators of their responsibilities towards digital advertising.