Report
Insights into affected others from the GSGB
Insights into affected others from the GSGB
Introduction
The Gambling Commission’s role is to safeguard consumers and the wider public by ensuring that gambling is safe, fair and crime free. We place consumers at the heart of our regulation. Under section 26 of the Gambling Act 2005 (opens in new tab), the Commission also has responsibility for collecting and disseminating information about the extent and impact of gambling in Great Britain. We do this through a programme of research and wider data analysis, which is structured across 6 evidence themes. We have published our Evidence Roadmaps, which for each theme set out the direction of travel for our research to inform regulation, the Commission’s priorities and progress against the roadmaps and also highlight areas where the wider evidence ecosystem can contribute and add value to the evidence base.
Within theme 3 ‘Gambling related harm and vulnerability’ we set out our intention to understand the impact of gambling on people who gamble and affected others. The Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB) identifies people who may be impacted by someone else’s gambling, providing the opportunity to explore this topic in more detail. This report therefore starts to examine the self-reported experiences of adults impacted by someone else’s gambling, referred to as affected others.
The GSGB has included questions on the potential and severe adverse consequences from someone else’s gambling since its launch, covering 3 domains: health, relationships and resources. This report draws on the latest annual GSGB (2024) data, using its large sample size to explore in more depth those we identified as affected others.
The findings highlight the complexity within the affected other group. We originally set out to explore the impact of gambling on people who do not gamble themselves, but the research has identified a more nuanced picture whereby some people are impacted not only by someone else’s gambling, but also by their own gambling experiences. This impact shouldn’t always be assumed to be negative, with a greater proportion of affected others who gamble themselves saying they gamble because it is something they do with their friends or family, suggesting a social element to their experience (52 percent compared to 35 percent of all people who gamble).
This report first looks at the characteristics of affected others, before exploring their own gambling behaviour, including differences between those who gamble and those who do not. It then explores adverse consequences - both potential and severe - across the 3 domains: health, relationships and resources. This includes impacts arising from someone else’s gambling and, where relevant, from individuals’ own gambling, as well as their support-seeking behaviours.
Additionally, this report informs planned future qualitative research being undertaken by the Commission. The purpose of the qualitative research is to help contextualise the GSGB findings. Taken together, such findings may highlight potential areas for regulatory consideration by the Commission or identify further opportunities for research and analysis on affected others by the wider gambling ecosystem.
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Affected others - Background
Last updated: 14 May 2026
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