The Gambling Commission has awarded NatCen and the University of Glasgow a four-year contract to deliver the Gambling Survey for Great Britain until 2030. The next phase will continue survey development and explore longitudinal research and links with other data, the regulator said.
The contract will sustain the survey used by the regulator to monitor gambling behaviour and develop its evidence base.
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The Gambling Commission's third annual Gambling Survey for Great Britain reports a problem gambling rate of 2.4%. The survey covers 2025 and is based on 20,775 respondents.
The Gambling Commission and the National Centre for Social Research conducted the latest Gambling Survey for Great Britain, covering adult gambling habits in the UK in the second quarter of 2025. The headline reports online participation at 38% and in-person gambling at 28%, with lottery play prominent in the latter; the available text gives no further survey details.
The Gambling Commission’s latest survey found that 46% of adults in Great Britain gambled between September 2024 and January 2025, down three percentage points from the previous period. Excluding people who only bought lottery or charity lottery tickets, participation was 28%, unchanged from the earlier survey.
The UK Gambling Commission published findings from follow-up interviews with 25 people who had experienced severe or adverse gambling consequences in the previous 12 months. Participants described limited trust in operator support tools, although some said deposit limits had helped; the commission recommended earlier interventions and tailored support.
Regulus Partners partner Dan Waugh argued that NICE breached Gambling Commission guidance when citing the Gambling Survey for Great Britain. NICE and the commission said the 2.5% figure in NICE’s press release referred to the survey population, not the UK population; the commission had contacted organisations 23 times over survey-statistic use from June to December 2024, with two corrections reported.