SOURCE: Reuters

(London, England) — Problem gambling in Britain is not getting worse a study showed on Wednesday, but spread betting and video machines in bookmakers' shops are now the biggest areas of concern.

The long-awaited report from Britain's Gambling Commission showed that 0.6 percent of those surveyed were problem gamblers. The number equates to around 250,000 adults in Britain and is little changed from the last broad study in 1999 despite a boom in Internet gambling.

Shares in gambling firms rose as investors hoped the news would ease the pressure on the government to tighten gambling restrictions.

The study, carried out by UK research specialist NatCen, looked at 17 forms of gambling ranging from betting in casinos and on the Internet to playing bingo and the National Lottery.

Surveying more than 9,000 people between September 2006 and March 2007 it was designed to be representative of Britain's 32 million adult population.

The government plans to use the results as the basis for legislation to cut gambling addiction and as a benchmark for future studies.

The study showed the number of people gambling fell to 10 million from 11 million in the 1999 study. Researchers attributed the drop to the National Lottery draw's waning popularity.

"If you exclude people that only ever played the National Lottery, participation in gambling has gone up from 46 percent to 48 percent," Heather Wardle, the study's lead researcher, told Reuters.

Gambling Commission chief Peter Dean said the results were a "surprise".

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