KEY TAKEAWAYS
CONTENTS
Key Numbers: Gambling in Great Britain in 2025
Nearly half of adults in Great Britain had gambled in the four weeks before they were surveyed. According to the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB), the official statistics series commissioned by the Gambling Commission, 47% of adults aged 18 and over took part in at least one form of gambling in the past 4 weeks in 2025, and 59% did so in the past 12 months. The Commission estimates that this equals roughly 25 million and 31 million adults, respectively.
Much of that activity is lottery play. When adults who only bought lottery draw tickets are excluded, past-4-week participation falls to 27%, and past-12-month participation to 40%. The single most common activity was buying National Lottery tickets, reported by 31% of adults for the past 4 weeks.
This article compiles the 2025 GSGB headline figures (survey year three, fieldwork January 2025 to January 2026, published 16 July 2026) by sex, age, activity and channel, and compares them with the 2023 and 2024 survey years. All figures are survey estimates published by the Gambling Commission and are attributed to it; WagerFacts did not conduct any survey. Data as of November 2026.
How the Gambling Survey for Great Britain Measures Participation
The GSGB is produced for the Gambling Commission by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) with the University of Glasgow. The 2025 survey collected responses from 20,775 adults aged 18 and over living in Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales), in four quarterly waves. NatCen reports that 67% completed the questionnaire online and 33% on paper by post — the “push-to-web” design.
Several definitions matter when reading the numbers:
- Past-4-week participation — the share of adults who took part in any gambling activity in the 4 weeks before answering. This is the Commission’s headline measure.
- Past-12-month participation — the share who gambled at least once in the previous year.
- Excluding lottery-draw-only players — removes adults whose only gambling was buying tickets for the National Lottery or other lottery draws. Scratchcards are not lottery draws, so scratchcard buyers stay in.
- Online vs. in person — “in person” means gambling at a venue or buying lottery tickets or scratchcards from shops or other vendors.
Every estimate carries a margin of error. The Commission publishes 95% confidence intervals: for 2025 past-4-week participation, the interval runs from 46.3% to 48.6%. Because the method changed in 2023, the Commission states that GSGB results should not be compared with older gambling or health surveys to assess trends.
UK Gambling Statistics: Participation by Sex, Age and Activity
The headline participation rates for 2025 and the two earlier GSGB years are shown below. The 2023 and 2024 figures come from the Commission’s 2024 report, which compared both years.
| Measure | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Any gambling, past 12 months | 61% | 60% | 59% |
| Any gambling, past 4 weeks | 48% | 48% | 47% |
| Past 12 months, excl. lottery-draw-only players | n/a | 41% | 40% |
| Past 4 weeks, excl. lottery-draw-only players | n/a | 28% | 27% |
| Males, past 4 weeks | 53% | 51% | 51% |
| Females, past 4 weeks | 44% | 44% | 44% |
n/a: the 2023 excluding-lottery figures were not shown on the report pages consulted for this article.
Age shows a clear pattern. In 2025, adults aged 55 to 64 had the highest past-4-week participation at 55%, followed by those aged 45 to 54 at 53%. The youngest group, aged 18 to 24, had the lowest at 33%. Once lottery-draw-only players are removed, the order flips: participation was highest among adults aged 25 to 44 (33%) and fell with age to 14% for those aged 75 and over.
| Activity | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| National Lottery tickets | 31% | 31% |
| Other charity lottery tickets | 16% | 16% |
| Scratchcards | 13% | 12% |
Adults who gambled in the past 4 weeks took part in a mean of 2.4 different activities in 2025, or 3.2 once lottery-draw-only players are excluded. Among adults aged 18 to 34 and among males, online betting on sports and racing replaced scratchcards in the top three activities.
UK Online Gambling Statistics: Online vs. In Person
On the face of it, more adults gamble online than in person: in 2025, 38% gambled online in the past 4 weeks against 28% in person. The Commission notes that most of this gap comes from lottery tickets bought online. The subtraction below shows how the gap changes.
where:
online participation = share of adults who gambled online in the past 4 weeks
in-person participation = share of adults who gambled at a venue or bought tickets or scratchcards from a vendor
With all adults included, the gap is 38 − 28 = +10 percentage points in favor of online. Excluding lottery-draw-only players, online participation was 16% and in-person 17%, so the gap becomes −1 percentage point.
The same subtraction gives the size of the lottery-only group: 47% − 27% = 20 percentage points, meaning about one adult in five gambled only on lottery draws in the past 4 weeks of 2025. Sex differences are larger online: 42% of males and 34% of females gambled online, and 20% of males versus 12% of females gambled online on something other than lottery draws.
2023, 2024 and 2025 Compared
The GSGB now has three consecutive years on the same method, and the Commission describes headline participation as stable. Past-4-week participation moved from 48% in 2023 to 48% in 2024 and 47% in 2025, a change of −1 percentage point over two years. Past-12-month participation went from 61% to 59%.
The Commission’s trends report, comparing 2023 with 2025, highlights one statistically significant increase: among males aged 55 and over, participation in activities other than lotteries rose from 27% to 32% for the past 12 months and from 18% to 22% for the past 4 weeks. Other male age groups and females showed no comparable change.
The survey also tracks gambling-related harm using the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI), a standard screening questionnaire. The Commission reports that the share of adults scoring 8 or more was 2.4% in 2025, which it describes as stable over the three years, and 2.7% in 2024. In 2025, 76.9% of adults had a PGSI score of 0, against 76.1% in 2023. For anyone affected by gambling, the Commission’s report page lists support lines: 0808 8020 133 in England and Scotland and 0808 2819 265 in Wales.
Methodology & Limitations
Datasets. Gambling Commission, Gambling Survey for Great Britain Annual Report 2025 (fieldwork January 2025 to January 2026, published 16 July 2026); GSGB Annual Report 2024 headline statistics (published 2 October 2025, last updated 12 March 2026), which also reports 2023 results; GSGB Trends report 2023 to 2025; NatCen’s GSGB publication page. All accessed November 2026.
Calculations. WagerFacts computed only simple differences between published percentages: the online-minus-in-person gap and the lottery-draw-only share (all-gambling participation minus participation excluding lottery-draw-only players). Because the inputs are rounded to whole percentages, these results may differ by about one point from figures calculated on unrounded data.
Limitations. GSGB figures are self-reported survey estimates with confidence intervals, not counts of players. Differences of one or two points between years are generally within the margin of error unless the Commission flags them as significant. The push-to-web design is not comparable with older surveys, and the Commission notes risks of both over- and under-estimation in its technical report. The data cover Great Britain only, not Northern Ireland. PGSI scores are screening results, not clinical diagnoses.
Key Figures at a Glance
The table below collects the main 2025 figures with their periods and source, for quick reference and citation. All values are Gambling Commission estimates for adults aged 18 and over in Great Britain.
| Figure | Value | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Gambled in past 4 weeks | 47% | 2025 survey year |
| Gambled in past 12 months | 59% | 2025 survey year |
| Past 4 weeks, excl. lottery-draw-only | 27% | 2025 survey year |
| Gambled online, past 4 weeks | 38% | 2025 survey year |
| Gambled in person, past 4 weeks | 28% | 2025 survey year |
| Mean activities among past-4-week gamblers | 2.4 | 2025 survey year |
| Respondents | 20,775 | Jan 2025 to Jan 2026 |
Related Data
For the money side of the same market, see the Great Britain gambling market size by sector, built from the Commission’s industry statistics. For a U.S. comparison of how participation surveys differ, read how many Americans gamble. Because lottery draws dominate participation in Great Britain, the U.S. state lottery sales and prizes data offers a useful next read.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sources & References
- Gambling Commission — Gambling Survey for Great Britain (Annual Report 2025): Official statistics, fieldwork January 2025 to January 2026 (accessed November 2026)
- Gambling Commission — GSGB Annual Report 2025: Gambling participation and experience of gambling (accessed November 2026)
- Gambling Commission — Commission publishes third annual Gambling Survey for Great Britain, 16 July 2026 (accessed November 2026)
- Gambling Commission — GSGB Annual Report 2024: Headline statistics, 2023 and 2024 survey years (accessed November 2026)
- Gambling Commission — 2024 Gambling Survey for Great Britain published, 2 October 2025 (accessed November 2026)
- Gambling Commission — GSGB Trends report 2023 to 2025: Findings (accessed November 2026)
- National Centre for Social Research — Gambling Survey for Great Britain, 2025 (Year 3) (accessed November 2026)
