Fixed Odds Betting Terminals

In November 2003 the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), the Gaming Board of Great Britain and the Association of British Bookmakers (ABB) agreed a Code of Practice for Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs).

The ABB and DCMS agreed that research was needed on effectiveness of the Code. A research brief was therefore agreed between ABB and DCMS. Ipsos and Europe Economics were awarded the contract and initial research was undertaken between April and December 2004.

A further study was undertaken between June and October 2005. The research aims to assess the effectiveness of the FOBT Code of Practice, and the individual elements within it, in providing protection against problem gambling.

Technical Details

The survey was broken down into two stages:

Stage 1: Ipsos Omnibus research among a representative sample of British adults.

• Questions were placed on six sequential waves of the Ipsos Omnibus survey
• Waves 1 & 2 among mass market gamblers to include:
  • All forms of the National Lottery/lottery
  • Scratch cards/instants
  • Football pools
  • Bingo
• Waves 3 to 6 were carried among betting & gaming players/users
• Approximately 2,000 respondents approached during each wave (11,993 in total). Of which, 2,294 respondents gamble at least once a month
• Interviewing took place face-to-face in the respondent's home
• Fieldwork took place between 30th June and 13th September 2005
• Key objectives of this phase of the research were to identify the following:
  • Gambling activities and reasons for gambling
  • Awareness, use and frequency of different forms of gambling

Stage 2: A Betting Shop study with customers to selected betting shops across Great Britain:

• Survey carried out among a random sample of 1,545 betting shop customers
• Interviews carried out face-to-face across 65 different betting shops carefully selected and geographically spread around England, Scotland and Wales
• Betting shops included in the sample were selected on the basis of market share
• A total of two seven hour interviewing shifts were carried out at each betting shop selected
• One assignment was carried out on a Thursday and the other on a Friday or a Saturday
• Fieldwork took place between 25th August and 27th October 2005
• Key objectives of this phase of research were to identify;
  • Gambling activities and reasons for gambling
  • Spend on gambling
  • Awareness, frequency of use, games used and spend on Betting Machines
  • Awareness, knowledge and views of the new Code of Practice relating to Betting Machines