[image credit : Gambling Commission]
The study found that an average of 57% of British residents has participated in at least one form of gambling in the four weeks leading up to the survey, which is static when compared with last year’s figure, with the National Lottery being the most popular at 46%.
Other popular form of gambling included scratchcards at 10%, another lottery at 13% and fruit or slots machines at 2% while those taking part were more likely to be male at 62% compared with 53% for women. Those aged 35 to 44 and 55 to 64 were the most likely to have gambled at 62% followed by those between the ages of 45 to 54 at 59%. Those over the age of 65 participated in gambling at a rate of 57% followed by 25 to 34-year-olds at 52% with players aged 18 to 24 on 48%.
“Overall, 73% of past four-week gamblers had gambled ‘in person only’,” read a statement from the Gambling Commission.
“A further 15% had done so both ‘online’ and ‘in person’ and only 12% had gambled ‘online only’. For participation in all individual activities with the exception of virtual dog or horse races, respondents were more likely to report that they gambled ‘online only’ than they were to report they did the activity both online and in person. Participating ‘online only’ was the most popular method of gambling for sportsbetting, joint with ‘in person only’, and spreadbetting. For all other activities ‘in person only’ was the most popular method of gambling. Among past four-week bettors, betting in person at a bookmakers was the most common option for all types of betting activity.”