The online gambling self exclusion scheme Gamstop has reported a 25% increase in registrations to its services during 2021. This amounts to 40,000 people signing up for the scheme from January to June with the total amount of self excluded users now passing over 200,000 people in total.
These insights come during Gamstop's Biannual review into its users with the free online self exclusion service recruiting research agency Sonnet to carry out its first independent evaluation of the platform. Sonnet surveyed over 3,000 users finding that on average 70% of those using the service were male with 30% being female. With 59% of all users being between 18 - 34 and of those using the service 58% had chosen the maximum exclusion period of five years.
Sonnet also looked into the socio-economic brackets Gamstop users fell into with 29% living in households with a pre tax income of more than £48,000 per year and 48% of users living in households earning more than £32,000. Equally Sonnet also found that 75% of users were in full time employment and 63% had no children or dependants. Gamstops Chief Executive Fiona Palmer said that “Our evaluation results demonstrate that gambling-related harm is an issue that affects people from all walks of life, irrespective of income, location, or gender. It is imperative that we continue to reach people from across the UK, and to give them access to tools that can aid them in their recovery or form an important preventative measure.” Gambling should be a fun past time where you are only gambling money you can afford to lose but some people struggle to play within their own boundaries if you or somebody you know needs to put controls in place to help restrict their online gambling activities. You can visit Gamstop by clicking here.