Report
GSGB: Different survey, same story? (written by Professor Heather Wardle)
Detail from 2 academic reports used to assess whether the GSGB and HSE tell a coherent story about how gambling is distributed across groups, products, and contexts.
Introduction
The Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB) is one of several national surveys collecting data on gambling behaviours. To date, discussion has focused on comparing headline prevalence estimates and explaining why these differ across studies, focusing mainly on past year rates of gambling participation or Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) scores. In contrast, relatively little attention has been given to whether these surveys reveal consistent patterns of behaviour. Put differently, even if estimates vary, do these differing surveys tell a coherent story about how gambling—and its associated harms—is distributed across different groups, products, and contexts? Two recently published academic reports help us to assess this in more detail.
First, however, we compare patterns of gambling participation across data currently available for the GSGB and Health Survey for England (HSE) series, looking at those activities where descriptions are comparable between the 2 surveys:
| Activity1 | Gambling participation (percentage) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Health Survey for England 2015 to 2018 | Health Survey for England 2024 | Gambling Survey for Great Britain 2023 to 2024 | |
| National Lottery tickets | 40.7% | 30.6% | 39.7% |
| Charity Lottery | 14.4% | 15.8% | 22.3% |
| Bingo in person | 5.1% | 4.1% | 6.1% |
| Casino in person | 3.1% | 2.1% | 2.8% |
| Fruit and/or slot machines in person | 6.3% | 3.7% | 6.3% |
| Football pools | 2.7% | 1.9% | 3.2% |
| Private betting | 4.3% | 2.4% | 7.8% |
| Betting on other events with a bookmaker | 1.4% | 1.3% | 1.9% |
In all surveys, the National Lottery is the most popular form of gambling, tending to be followed by charity lotteries and scratchcards (data not shown). With the exception of sports and/or horse race betting, less than 1 in 10 people take part in most other forms of gambling activity, a pattern that is consistent across all surveys. Notably, past year participation estimates for each activity were similar for the HSE 2015 to 2018 and GSGB 2023 to 2024 studies, the exception being charity lotteries. By contrast, past year gambling on each activity captured within HSE 2024 tended to be lower than the prior HSE studies or the GSGB. Future studies using the same methodology within the HSE series are needed to examine if results for 2024 are indicative of a downward trend within this series or whether they are a statistical outlier.
Two peer reviewed academic reports have further examined comparisons between the HSE series and the GSGB. These results are summarised in the following sections.
References
1 This table only presents data where the description of each gambling activity was broadly comparable between the different studies.
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Report 1: Understanding product risk - GSGB: Different survey, same story?
Last updated: 16 July 2026
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