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Statistics and research release

Statistics on participation and problem gambling for the year to March 2022

Findings from the quarterly telephone survey: Statistics on participation and problem gambling for the year to March 2022.

Statistics
Statistics and research hub

Collection
Consumer gambling behaviour

Series
Gambling participation and problem gambling

Published on
26 April 2022

Summary

Additional data sets in this series

This statistical release covers the quarterly gambling participation and problem gambling prevalence data for the year to March 2022.

The data being released today is based on the Gambling Commission’s quarterly telephone survey conducted by Yonder Consulting. A nationally representative sample of 4,018 adults aged 16 and over were interviewed via telephone in June 2021, September 2021, December 2021 and March 2022. Further details on the quarterly telephone survey methodology can be found on the front cover of the main publication.

Key facts

  • In year to March 2022, overall participation in any gambling activity (in the last four weeks) significantly increased to 43% (an increase of 3 percentage points on year to March 2021) but does remain lower than the pre-pandemic participation rate (47% in Year to March 2020).
  • In year to March 2022, the in-person gambling participation rate increased to 26% (from 23% in year to March 2021) showing some signs of recovery since the pandemic. This increase in participation appears to be driven by a return to in person gambling activities, particularly other lotteries, sports betting, fruit and slot machines, horses and bingo, however, the participation rates for these activities (in year to March 2022) still remain below pre-pandemic levels.
  • Online gambling participation remained statistically stable at 26% (compared to year to March 2021) but continues its long-term increase.
  • The overall headline problem gambling rate is statistically stable at 0.2%. The moderate risk and low risk rates are also statistically stable at 0.9% and 1.4% respectively.

Notes

This publication is primarily for anyone who has an involvement or interest in the gambling industry including government, licensed operators, trade bodies, international regulators, journalists, academic researchers, financial institutions, statisticians, consumers and local authorities.

About the status of official statistics.

We intend to publish the next quarterly participation and prevalence statistics in July 2022.

Data and downloads

Files

Survey data on gambling participation April 2022

XLSX 610.7 kB

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