World's Largest Study Of The Online Gambler Revealed
| Decide For Yourself Player Attitudes The best things about internet gambling are 'convenience and accessibility' and 'fun and excitement', while 'losing' and 'financial implications' came top of the worst things - as might be expected. The vast majority of players say they are 'up' or 'down' within a range plus or minus £130 a month or £32.50 per week - less than the cost of a night in the pub with your mates and a taxi home. Overall, players felt that there was some need for improvement across a range of areas - 55% wanted to see an increase in the number sites submitting themselves to effective self regulation e.g. eCOGRA, while operator transparency (55%), clarity of regulations (54%), uniformity of code of conduct (51%), responsiveness to complaints (49%) and better responsible gambling features (48%) all featured highly on the list. In addition to the 55% who supported effective self regulation, a further one in four players (25%) felt 'very strongly' about the need for sites to sign up to a common code of conduct. When it comes to customer service, it appears that online gambling companies do well when compared to other industries. The majority of players felt they received either the same level or significantly better levels of customer service, even when they'd had a dispute with a site. Approximately half of all respondents had confidence in the integrity of the software, although disturbingly, one in three people thought that the sites had an on/off switch that allowed them to turn the software in their favour - something that an eCOGRA member site would find it impossible to implement thanks to the organisation's standards for software development and independent testing procedures. When it came to minimising the risk of being cheated, 64% of players 'often' or 'always' played on the biggest named sites, with 40% saying they 'never' played on smaller sites because of this fear. In addition, 70% of players said they sought out well known software providers or other assurances such as the eCOGRA 'Play it Safe' seal (61%). Player Behaviour Play takes place mainly at home (89.7%) in the evening; however one in ten women preferred playing in the workplace. Nearly 40% of respondents said they visited message boards or forums, contradicting previous perceptions of online gambling as a rather solitary activity. Message forums are visited to get information about sites (53% say they visit for this purpose), to have a general read and catch up on news (40% and 37% respectively), as well as find out about promotional offers (the most popular of all, cited by 65% of respondents). The typical wager is between £15-30 a session in casino games and poker players said they typically played with 2-10% of their bankroll at any one time. In a further sign of realism about their chances, a third of poker players say that the game required more skill than luck, yet most say they were simply 'averagely' skilled. Choosing An Online Casino The most important single motivator for playing at a particular casino site is its bonuses (75%), followed by game variety (62%), deposit method and reputation (both 56%) and then promptness of payouts (54%). Note: Players looking to decide on which online casinos to player at should always see the approved and verified list of online casinos at CasinoTimes.co.uk. UK players should choose from those casinos listed at the Decide For Yourself |
