Source: Gambling Commission's Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB)
The Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB) is now the official national dataset for population-level gambling statistics in Great Britain. It replaces previous Health Survey-based measures and uses a large, online-first, nationally representative sampling framework. Approximately 20,000 adults are surveyed annually.
The latest findings come from:
GSGB Annual Report Year 2 (2024) (Gambling Commission, 2025)
Wave 3 (Jul–Oct 2025) – (Gambling Commission, 2026)
Nearly half (48 percent) of survey participants aged 18 and over participated in any form of gambling in the past four weeks. Gambling participation was 28 percent when those who only participated in lottery draws were excluded.
Participants were more likely to gamble online than gamble in person (38 percent and 29 percent respectively), however, much of this difference was accounted for by people purchasing lottery tickets online. When lottery draws are removed, 18 percent of participants had gambled in person, compared with 16 percent online.
The mean number of activities for those who had participated in gambling in the past 4 weeks was 2.4 activities. The most commonly reported activities were the National Lottery (31 percent), buying tickets for other charity lotteries (16 percent), and buying scratchcards (13 percent).
(Gambling Commission, 2025)
Participation varies noticeably across demographic groups:
Men continue to gamble at higher rates than women.
When lotteries are included, the highest participation is among men aged 45–54.
When excluding lotteries, highest participation shifts to men aged 35–44.