Gambling Survey UK: Participation in betting has increased 3%

The Gambling Commission has released data culminated by NatCen for the Gambling Survey of Great Britain, from April to July 2024. The surveys and research has been conducted from 4,657 adults over the age of 18.

Out of the number of participants, 48% confirmed they had gambled during the last four weeks. Online gambling came in at 37%, meanwhile 29% said they had gambled in-person.

When excluding lottery draw players, the number of participants who gambled online in the last four weeks dropped to 17%; and those who gambled in-person (excluding lottery draw players) decreased to 18%.

Overall gambling participation in the last four weeks comes in highest for National Lottery draws, with 31% of participants admitting to having bought a lottery ticket within that period. 

Meanwhile, 12% said they had purchased National Lottery scratchcards, 12% bet on sports, 4% bet on bingo while only 5% of participants bet on slot games and even less participants played casino games within that period; with just 3% of participants claiming to  have playedd casino games within the four-week period.

When it comes to sports betting, 7% said they bet on live football; 7% also said they bet on horse/dog racing, 4% bet in-play and other live sports was just 1%.

The survey also showed that the most common age group among gamblers is males aged 45 to 54, but when removing lottery players the demographic changes to males aged 25 to 34.

According to the report, when compared to the previous period from January to April 2024, participation in betting had increased by over 3%.

Additionally, the most common reasons people gambled were revealed to be ‘because it’s fun’ and ‘for the chance to win big money’.

The Gambling Commission recently partnered with NatCen and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to create data for the Gambling Act Review.