The Gambling Commission (GC) has stated 2.7% of adults in Great Britain scored eight or above on the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) in 2024.
The figure comes from the annual Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB) which was published today, 2 October.
The estimate means that approximately 1.4 million adults in Great Britain score eight or more on the PGSI, which indicates potential gambling-related harm.
The GC specified that with a 95% confidence interval, estimates would range between 1.2 million and 1.7 million people.
The regulator had previously dissuaded the extrapolation of its GSGB findings onto a national population scale.
Nonetheless, the GC reiterated that the GSGB should not be directly compared to other gambling surveys due to the varying methodologies used to determine estimates.
For example, the NHS health survey of 2021 puts the percentage of those with a PGSI score of eight or more at 0.4% – a figure that has been used by the Betting and Gaming Council.
The GC noted: “It is acceptable to highlight differences between surveys, provided you make it clear that different methodologies were used, and avoid suggesting that these differences indicate changes over time.”
The 2024 GSGB was undertaken by the National Centre for Social Research and University of Glasgow and involved 19,714 respondents.
Key findings from the report show 48% of adults in Great Britain have gambled in the past four weeks, which declines to 28% when discluding those who had only bought lottery draw tickets.
Playing The National Lottery (31%) was the most common form of gambling, followed by charity lotteries (16%) and scratchcards (13%).
Andrew Rhodes, GC CEO, said: “The Gambling Survey for Great Britain is a key building block of the evidence base which helps government, industry and other partners understand both gambling behaviour and potential consequences from gambling.
“This year’s findings deepen our understanding of consequences from gambling and provide crucial insight into risk profiles among those who gamble most frequently. We strongly encourage operators to use this evidence to consider the risks within their own customer bases.
“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 white paper.”
A Betting and Gaming Council spokesperson stated: “More than 22 million adults in Britain enjoy a bet each month and as the Gambling Commission today shows, the vast majority of people do so safely.
“Our members take player protections incredibly seriously and have voluntarily contributed £170m to research, education and treatment programmes over the past four years alone to tackle problem gambling – in stark contrast to the illegal growing black market where 1.5 million Brits staked up to £4.3bn and which actively targets vulnerable customers.
“The NHS Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey of June 2025 and the NHS health survey of 2021 both estimated problem gambling at 0.4%. The differences between this and the Gambling Commission’s rate reflects different methodology rather than a rise in harm.”
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Gambling Commission says data can be extrapolated, suggesting an estimated 1.4 million adults could be at the upper end of the scale
The post Gambling Survey for Great Britain states 2.7% of adults have a PGSI score of eight or above first appeared on EGR Intel.