GAMBLING: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF LITHUANIA AND THE UNITED KINGDOM

Gambling is widespread in modern society and new ways of gaming still keep emerging. However, Lithuania still lacks research on gambling; the prevalence of gambling and the extent of addiction has not been revealled yet. In particular, there is a lack of comparative studies allowing a more accurate assessment of national gambling peculiarities, providing a basis for a foreign know-how application in gambling supervision. The article presents a representative Lithuanian population survey (January-February 2017) data which is compared with the data of the United Kingdom‘s regular polls. This survey was carried out by a public opinion and market research „Vilmorus“ Ltd. in cooperation with Mykolas Riomeris University. The Lithuanian study was performed in line with the UK Gambling Commission‘s methodology regularly used for researches on gambling reasons, prevalence and consequences, yet adapting it to the Lithuanian conditions. The United Kingdom surveyed 7756 respondents, Lithuania - 1000 respondents. The study shows that the prevalence of gambling in Lithuania and the United Kingdom is significantly different. These differences are most prominent in participation in various forms of lotteries – participation of Lithuanian respondents is obviously higher. Lithuanian gamblers, compared to the United Kingdom, take less interest in casinos, Category A machines in the casino premises and Category B machine halls. They consist only 2 percent of all gamblers. Meanwhile, in the UK almost a quarter of respondents played at casino table games. A number of UK‘s gamblers at slot machine halls and betting stations significantly exceeds a number of such gamblers in Lithuania either. Gambling reasons can be divided into three larger groups, that can be described as “financial” (striving to improve a financial situation, win money), “emotional” (desire to experience the thrill, feeling of hazard, overcome boredom) and “leisure” (desire to relax, rest, experience an unusual leisure time). Lithuania, same as the United Kingdom, is dominated by “financial” gambling motives. The “leisure” perception of gambling is much more common in the United Kingdom than in Lithuania.