Gambling Commission Renews Problem Gambling Rate Survey for Four Years

The Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB) will continue to be delivered by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) and the University of Glasgow for another four years, taking the agreement up to the end of 2029, the Gambling Commission has announced.

In the next phase of the GSGB, which will begin in 2026, NatCen and the University of Glasgow will explore the potential for using the GSGB for longitudinal research and data linkage, in an attempt to understand how gambling behaviours evolve over time.

Two years in

The GSGB launched in 2024 (covering 2023), providing a data point for the official statistics on gambling behaviours in Great Britain. The GSGB replaced the Commission’s quarterly telephone survey, and has so far produced starkly different information with regards to problem gambling rates compared to what came before.

The 2024 GSGB survey, which was published in October 2025, showed the percentage of problem gamblers in Great Britain increased to 2.7%, up from 2.5% for 2023. This was the percentage of respondents scored eight or more on the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI); the highest possible score.

That increase could have been explained in part by the significantly higher number of respondents in the 2024 survey. The 2024 survey was based on 19,714 respondents, more than double the 9,804 people who contributed to the 2023 survey.  This indicates the total number of problem gamblers within the 2024 cohort was around 530, as opposed to about 250 in the 2023 sample.

A different picture

These numbers are up significantly from what was being shown in previous surveys. The Commission previously announced that in the year to December 2022, a total of 0.2% of 4,000 respondents classed as problem gamblers. In the quarterly telephone survey, problem gamblers were classed as anyone who scored four or more on the PGSI scale, but it was still the most at-risk group.

The Commission had also previously published screening tests from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association, which had showed a total of 0.5% of problem gamblers in 2018.

The 2024 survey also showed about 48% of adults aged 18+ in Great Britain had gambled in the previous four weeks, decreasing to 28% when excluding those who had only bought tickets for lottery draws. This was pretty much in line with figures from the 2023 survey.

What they said

Reacting to the extension with the Commission, Mari Toomse-Smith, Director of Health and Biomedical Surveys at NatCen, said:

“We are honoured to have been trusted by the Gambling Commission to lead on the delivery of the GSGB. We worked closely with the Commission to design a state-of-the-art survey and are pleased to be able to continue the GSGB journey with the Gambling Commission and the University of Glasgow."

Tim Miller, Executive Director of Research and Policy for the Gambling Commission, added:

“The Gambling Survey for Great Britain has already transformed our understanding of how people gamble, providing richer, more reliable insight than ever before. We are pleased to award this new contract to NatCen and the University of Glasgow, whose expertise has been central to the GSGB’s success so far.

“Over the next four years we’ll continue to strengthen the survey and expand what it can tell us—whether that’s through deeper analysis or exploring opportunities for longitudinal research. This work is fundamental to ensuring our regulation is rooted in the best possible evidence.”