UK Gambling Commission Publishes Third Annual Gambling Survey Detailing Stable Participation and Reduced Problem Gambling Levels

The UK Gambling Commission released its third annual Gambling Survey for Great Britain in July 2026, and the findings establish three consecutive years of consistent official statistics on adult behaviours, attitudes, and harms. Data collection ran from January 2025 through January 2026 and drew responses from more than 20,000 adults across the country, which allows direct year-on-year comparisons that earlier fragmented surveys could not provide.

Participation Rates Hold Steady Across the Population

Overall gambling participation remained stable when compared with the previous two waves of the survey, which means the proportion of adults who reported any form of gambling activity showed no significant movement. Lottery draws continued to attract the largest share of participants, yet the figures also separate lottery-only play from other gambling forms so that trends in betting, casino games, and gaming machines become clearer. Observers note that non-lottery gambling continues to draw higher participation among older men, a pattern that has persisted across the three annual reports and now rests on a larger, more robust sample size.

Problem Gambling Indicators Show Modest Decline

The survey measures problem gambling through the Problem Gambling Severity Index, and the proportion of adults scoring eight or higher dropped from 2.7 percent in the prior report to 2.4 percent in the latest wave. That decline, though small in percentage terms, represents thousands fewer individuals meeting the threshold for problem gambling within the weighted national sample. Researchers at the Commission have emphasised that the three-year dataset now permits tracking of this indicator without the methodological breaks that affected earlier studies, which strengthens confidence in the direction of travel.

Three Years of Consistent Data Strengthen Trend Analysis

Because the Gambling Survey for Great Britain now covers three full years with a single methodology, analysts can examine whether short-term fluctuations represent genuine shifts or random variation. The stable participation rate alongside the modest drop in problem gambling scores suggests that overall engagement has not expanded while harm indicators have moved slightly downward. The Commission has stated that future waves will maintain the same sampling and weighting approach, which should allow even longer-term tracking of both participation and harm metrics.

Attitudes Toward Gambling and Perceived Harms

Respondents were asked about their perceptions of gambling harms, and the results indicate that awareness of potential negative consequences remains widespread. A majority of adults continue to view gambling as an activity that carries risks for some people, even though most participants report no personal difficulties. The survey also records attitudes toward regulation and industry practices, supplying additional context for the participation and harm figures. These attitudinal questions have been asked in identical form across all three years, which again supports reliable trend monitoring.

Conclusion

The third annual Gambling Survey for Great Britain supplies the most comprehensive official picture yet of adult gambling activity and associated harms in the country. With participation holding steady and problem gambling scores registering a slight decline, the data offer regulators and researchers a stable platform for evaluating the impact of existing policies. The Commission has made the full dataset and accompanying reports available on its website, and the linked Gambling Survey for Great Britain Annual Report 2025 contains the detailed tables and methodological notes that underpin the headline findings. Continued annual releases will show whether the modest reduction in problem gambling prevalence continues or levels off in subsequent years.