Report
Gambling Survey for Great Britain - Annual report (2025): Official statistics
This report contains findings from the third year (2025) of the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB).
Gambling participation and experience of gambling
Gambling participation
In 2025, 59 percent (95 percent confidence interval (CI): 57.8 to 60.2) of adults aged 18 and over participated in any form of gambling in the past 12 months and 47 percent (95 percent CI: 46.3 to 48.6) had participated in gambling in the past 4 weeks.
When applied to the adult (aged 18 and older) population of Great Britain, these estimates suggest that approximately 31 million adults gambled in the past 12 months and 25 million gambled in the past 4 weeks.
When those who only participated in lottery draws were excluded, gambling participation was 40 percent in the past 12 months and 27 percent in the past 4 weeks.
In 2025, male participants (51 percent, 95 percent CI: 49.1 to 52.0) were more likely to have participated in gambling in the past 4 weeks than female participants (44 percent, 95 percent CI: 43.2 to 45.8).
Male participants (30 percent) were also more likely to have gambled on something other than lottery draws alone, than female participants (24 percent).
Participants aged 45 to 54 and 55 to 64 were most likely to take part in any form of gambling in the past 4 weeks (53 percent, 95 percent CI: 50.6 to 55.3, and 55 percent , 95 percent CI: 52.8 to 56.8, respectively) and participants in the youngest age group were least likely (33 percent, 95 percent CI: 29.9 to 36.1, of those aged 18 to 24).
When those who only participated in lottery draws were excluded, gambling participation in the past 4 weeks was highest for those aged 25 to 44 years (33 percent) and subsequently decreased with age to 14 percent for those aged 75 years and over.
The most common gambling activities in the past 4 weeks among all participants were:
- buying tickets for the National Lottery (31 percent)
- buying tickets for other charity lotteries (16 percent)
- buying scratchcards (12 percent).
This varied by age group and sex, with the above statement holding true for those aged 35 and above and for female participants. It did not hold true for those aged 18 to 34 and for male participants, who instead of buying scratchcards included betting on sports and racing online in their most 3 common activities.
Participants who gambled in the past 4 weeks took part in a mean of 2.4 different types of gambling activities. When those who only participated in lottery draws were excluded, the mean number of gambling activities was 3.2.
The mean number of gambling activities participants took part in in the past 4 weeks was highest among those aged 18 to 24 with 3.6 activities and subsequently decreased with age to 1.7 activities among those aged 75 or over. Excluding those who only participated in lottery draws, the mean number of gambling activities was highest among those aged 18 to 24 with 3.9 activities and lowest among those aged 75 or over with 2.6 activities.
A higher proportion of participants gambled online in the past 4 weeks than in person (that is to gamble at a venue or purchase lottery tickets or scratchcards from shops or other vendors), with 38 percent participating in online gambling and 28 percent participating in in person gambling. However, much of this difference was accounted for by online purchases of lottery tickets. When lottery draw only players were excluded, 16 percent of participants gambled online, and 17 percent gambled in person.
Male participants (42 percent) were more likely to have taken part in online gambling in the past 4 weeks than female participants (34 percent) and to have gambled on online activities other than lottery draws (20 percent for males and 12 percent for females).
Male participants (29 percent) were also more likely to have gambled in person in the past 4 weeks than female participants (27 percent), although the proportion was similar when lottery draw only players were excluded (18 percent for males and 17 percent for females).
Further details can be found in the accompanying set of data tables for the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB) Annual Report 2025, specifically tables B.1 to B.13.
Experiences of and reasons for gambling
When asked to rate their feelings towards gambling out of 10, where 10 represented that they loved it, 0 represented that they hated it, and 5 represented the neutral mid-point:
- 42 percent of adults who gambled in the past 12 months rated the last time they gambled with a positive score of between 6 and 10
- 22 percent gave a negative score of between 0 and 4
- 36 percent gave a score of 5, expressing that they neither loved nor hated it.
The pattern was similar when those who only participated in lottery draws were excluded, with a higher proportion giving a positive score (49 percent gave a positive score between 6 and 10, 20 percent a negative score between 0 and 4, and 31 percent a neutral score of 5).
The most common reasons for adults to participate in gambling at least sometimes were:
- for the chance of winning big money (84 percent)
- because it is fun (69 percent)
- to make money (57 percent)
- because it is exciting (53 percent).
Further details on the experiences and reasons for gambling can be found in the accompanying set of data tables for the GSGB Annual Report 2025, specifically tables C.1 to C.3.
Reasons for gambling varied by the type of activity respondents took part in. This is explored in further detail in the Investigating the relationship between reasons for gambling and different gambling activities report.
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GSGB Annual report 2025 - Consequences from gambling
Last updated: 16 July 2026
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