48% of Adults Gamble in a Month, Says UKGC Survey

Last month, the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) announced the data from the first wave of the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB). The results revealed that almost half of the study participants (48%) admitted to gambling in a month.

What is the GSGB?

The new UKGC survey has been in development for some time and aims to collect better gambling data to understand who gambles and when so that UK gambling regulations can be improved.

The first wave of the UKGC survey was carried out between July and November 2023 and included roughly 4,800 adults aged 18 or above. The survey asked questions about their gambling participation, including why they gamble, how they gamble, and what types of gambling they participate in.

The results are in

In the survey, 48% of the participants said that they had gambled in the previous four weeks. However, 21% of the gamblers only participated in lottery draws (with, for example, the National Lottery), reducing the number of gamblers in four weeks to 27%.

The highest gamblers were males between 45 and 54 years old, but again, if lottery participation was excluded, the age group with the highest gambling participation was 18 to 44 years old. The GSGB says this result ‘highlights the large proportion of online gamblers that only gamble on lottery draws.’

Types of gambling

29% of the respondents in the survey said that they participated in in-person gambling activities, but this was reduced to 18% when lottery-draw-only players were removed. The main reasons, according to the survey, for gambling were for monetary reasons or for entertainment/fun.

Tracking behavioural trends

The UKGC’s Director of Research and Statistics, Ben Haden, said that the new research will help identify and track gamblers' behavioural trends. He added that the reports will be published quarterly, with the aim of gaining responses from approximately 5,000 gambling participants. Once a year, the Commission will provide a publication summarising the collected data.

He said, ‘The GSGB provides a consistent and frequent way of collecting data amongst adults in Great Britain and will provide regular data outputs in order to help us understand changes in gambling behaviour amongst the population and amongst sub-population groups.’

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