Regulus Partners: GC’s guidance on the misuse of statistics “widely ignored”

Regulus Partners has accused the Gambling Commission (GC) of being “weak” when it comes to clamping down on the misuse of official statistics among the news media, activist groups and researchers.

In a no-punches-pulled edition of its newsletter published yesterday, 30 January, the research firm said the GC had taken “no visible action against recalcitrant or repeat offenders” and that its guidance on the use and misuse of statistics “has been widely ignored”.

Anti-gambling campaign groups were said to have “simply ignored notifications of misuse” and failed to remove content breaching the guidance.

Regulus Partners’ own analysis found that since June 2024 the regulator has sent 21 notifications relating to the inappropriate use of statistics, principally relating to the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB).

However, the firm said there has been “no corrective action taken” in more than two-thirds of cases, the analysis claimed to have discovered. 

Regulus Partners argued the GC has failed to honour a pledge to take a tough approach to misuse of statistics and that the regulator may be in breach of the UK Statistics Authority’s Code of Practice for Statistics.

This code requires the producer to “challenge the inappropriate use of statistics and data and reflect upon how further misuse can be prevented”.

The GC has previously expressed its frustration on the matter, with executive director Tim Miller suggesting at the annual GambleAware conference in December that some parties are deliberately mispresenting data or using misleading and attention-grabbing headlines.

He insisted it was vital news outlets are “fastidious” when reporting official stats to ensure facts-based evidence was being used accurately. 

Following a freedom of information request, the GC revealed in September that it had written to newsrooms including The Guardian, The Daily Mail and The Observer, as well as the likes of charity Gambling with Lives (GWL) and the University of Bristol, regarding the misuse of statistics.

For instance, The Guardian, like other outlets, was pulled up for taking data from the GSGB to report that the problem gambling rate may be eight times higher than first thought.

The GC has stressed the GSGB shouldn’t provide direct comparisons to previous gambling or health surveys and that if 2.5% of the adult population were problem gamblers, as had been stated, it would equate to 1.3 million people.

In another example, The University of Bristol was singled out for using a “grossed-up population figure in isolation” when writing in a paper that 55,000 children in the UK are problem gamblers.

Regulus Partners said two University of Bristol reports contravened the GC’s guidance on the use of official statistics, yet “so far, neither has been corrected”.

The firm said the GC should “wake up” to the fact its guidance has been “confusing and ineffective”.

“Having pledged to take a robust approach to misuse of statistics, it is time for the Commission to step up. Its credibility depends on it,” Regulus Partners wrote.

EGR has reached out to the GC for a response but has yet to receive a reply.  

On 4 February, Regulus Partners issued a correction relating the the University of Bristol.

The firm said: “We incorrectly stated that reports from the University of Bristol that misused statistics had not been corrected.

In fact, the Ipsos/University of Bristol report, ‘Drivers of Gambling Marketing Restrictions an International Comparison’ was corrected following a request from the Gambling Commission. We apologise to the researchers at the university for this error.”