UK Gambling Regulator Accused of Misrepresenting Survey Data to Justify Tax Hikes

^{Pictured: Tim Miller, Executive Director at the UK Gambling Commission}

The UK Gambling Commission has been accused of misrepresenting data on problem gambling prevalence, according to NEXT.io, citing a report by consulting firm Regulus Partners.

The claims relate to a survey used to estimate both participation in gambling and the prevalence of problem gambling in the UK.

According to the findings, 48% of UK adults had engaged in betting over the previous month, while 2.7% of respondents were classified as problem gamblers.

When publishing the survey results in 2024, the regulator explicitly stated that the figures should not be extrapolated to the wider population and could not be used to estimate the total number of problem gamblers.

That limitation was later removed ahead of the 2025 autumn budget, which introduced higher taxes for the gambling sector.

The regulator said the change was based on research conducted by London School of Economics and NatCen, which examined whether the survey results could be considered representative of the broader population.

However, the study did not support such a conclusion. In correspondence with the regulator, one of the authors reportedly stated that the findings did not justify extrapolation.

Regulus Partners suggested that the shift in methodology may have been driven by an effort to support stricter regulation and higher tax burdens on the gambling industry.

The Gambling Commission rejected the criticism, saying that guidance on how to use the survey data had been developed with input from experts and other stakeholders.

Earlier, Gambling Park reported that, amid rising taxes, William Hill had decided to close around 200 betting shops in the UK.