Great Britain’s Problem Gambling Rates up to 2.7% for 2024

The percentage of problem gamblers in Great Britain increased slightly to 2.7% for 2024, research from the Gambling Commission has found.

The Commission released its annual Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB), produced by the National Centre for Social Research and University of Glasgow, showing 2.7% of respondents scored eight or more on the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI). This was up from 2.5% for 2023.

Eight is the top score of the PGSI, which represents problem gambling by which a person will have experienced adverse consequences from gambling and may have lost control of their behaviour. The frequency at which those players gamble can be of any level, but it is likely to be heavy.

How they were scored

With regards to PGSI, gamblers are grouped into four different categories based on their gambling activity; 0 (a gambler who shows no symptoms of problem gambling), 1-2 (unlikely to have experienced adverse consequences), 3-7 (representing moderate risk), and 8+, which the 2.7% total comes from.

The increase can partially be explained by a much 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.

Dramatic increase from previous surveys

This was the second annual GSGB survey. What is very telling from the two GSGB surveys that have been published so far is the problem gambling rates have been significantly higher than the data was showing in previous surveys published by the Commission. The Commission previously announced that in the year to December 2022, a total of 0.2% of 4,000 respondents classed as problem gamblers.

That data was based on the Commission’s quarterly telephone survey, which has since been replaced by the GSGB. 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.

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Affordability checks are in

It is also worth noting that 2024 was the first year in which operators were legally obliged to use affordability checks on gamblers spending more than £150 a month, as a result of the Gambling White Paper, with the rollout lasting from August 2024 to February 2025. The next survey results will be the first to encompass a full year’s worth of data with affordability checks in place.

Andrew Rhodes, Chief Executive of the Gambling Commission, said: “Data and research, such as GSGB, is essential to helping us identify where our regulatory focus should be and informs our ongoing work to implement player protection recommendations from the Gambling Act Review White Paper.”

Almost half gambled in the month before

The 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.