The Gambling Commission has published its latest Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB) based on interviews with 4.657 adults aged 18 and over, with the information collected from April to July 2024.
The study conducted in Britain has revealed just under half of those questioned take part in regular gambling activity.
Although 48% of respondents indicated they were gamblers, around 20% exclusively played the National Lottery or other charity-related lottery draws. General gambling participation was defined as any form of betting activity over the previous four weeks.
On Thursday (Dec. 5), Wave 2 of the 2024 statistics was released, with the figures remaining consistent with data from earlier in the year and the findings from 2023.
The GSGB is described as “one of the largest surveys about people’s gambling behaviors in the world, collecting data from 20,000 respondents each year.” This information provides a critical understanding of contemporary betting behavior and opinions, creating a solid source of evidence on the issue.
At the end of October, the UK betting industry emerged unscathed from the new Labour government’s first budget, following speculation on the introduction of punitive taxes.
Lottery play was the dominant and favored gambling activity
The findings of the survey provided further insights, revealing gambling participation was highest among the category of males aged 45 to 64, but lottery players skewed this. Excluding this specific activity, young males aged 25 to 34 were the most prevalent demographic.
Online gambling activity was reported by 37% of those polled, but this dropped to 17% when lottery games were taken out of the equation. This compares to 29% of in-person gambling, including lottery play, and 18%, without.
This survey showed the National Lottery as the dominant game of choice, favored by 31% of players. Other lotteries were cited by 16% of those asked. Other options selected by participants as their preferred activity included scratchcards (12%), regular betting (12%), and online instant win competitions (7%).
On motivations for gambling, most opted for “the chance to win big money” and “because it’s fun” as the main drivers.
The GSGB is due to return its next findings in February next year.
Image credit: Via Midjourney
