Minus National Lottery, Remote Gambling Participation Flat in U.K.

The National Lottery has once again brightened up remote gambling participation figures in the United Kingdom.

The figures, released quarterly and annually by the Gambling Commission, assess how many residents are gambling via computer, mobiles and television, and how often.

In the 12 months to March 2009, approximately 9.9 percent of the 8,000 adults surveyed said they had participated in some form of remote gambling, up from 9.7 percent during the 2008 calendar year.

Of those participating in at least one form of remote gambling during the period, 43.5 percent gambled only on the National Lottery, up from 42.6 percent in 2008.

Excluding those that punted only on the lottery, the gambling-participation figure was 5.6 percent, unchanged against 2008.

As in years past, computers and P.D.A.s were the most popular gambling devices (8.2 percent), followed mobile phones (2.8 percent) and interactive television (2.1 percent).

The most popular forms of remote gambling were National Lottery tickets (7.5 percent), betting (2.6 percent), National Lottery scratchcards (2.4 percent) and poker rooms/tournaments (1.8 percent).

By demographic, males (12.2 percent) were more likely to gamble remotely than females (7.7 percent).

Click here to view a copy of the figures.