UK Gambling Commission Publishes GSGB Trends Report on Participation Shifts from 2023 to 2025

The UK Gambling Commission has issued its latest comparison of gambling participation and behaviour metrics drawn from the 2023 and 2025 editions of the Gambling Survey for Great Britain. This release focuses on data collected between January 2025 and January 2026, and it highlights that 47 percent of adults in Great Britain reported gambling in the previous four weeks. Sports betting appears alongside lottery participation as activities that continue to register notable patterns within the overall figures. The report draws directly from the annual GSGB surveys and presents side-by-side metrics that allow observers to track changes across the two reference years. Commission staff compiled responses from thousands of participants to produce these headline statistics, and the resulting document concentrates on past-four-week participation rather than lifetime or annual measures.

Survey Scope and Methodology Overview

Data collection for the 2025 wave occurred throughout the twelve-month window ending in January 2026, which places the most recent figures in a post-pandemic context where both in-person and remote channels operate under established regulatory frameworks. The 2023 wave provided the baseline for comparison, and researchers applied consistent weighting and sampling techniques across both waves to support direct metric alignment.

Participation questions asked respondents whether they had taken part in any gambling activity during the preceding four weeks, and follow-up items captured the specific types of betting or gaming involved. Lottery draws and sports betting emerged as the two categories that together accounted for the largest share of reported activity, while the overall 47 percent figure reflects the combined reach of all listed formats.

Headline Participation Rate and Category Breakdowns

Forty-seven percent of adults indicated they had gambled in the past four weeks, a level that incorporates both lottery tickets and sports wagers along with other regulated products. The survey instrument listed options that included national lottery draws, sports betting on football and horse racing, casino games, bingo, and online slots, allowing analysts to isolate the contribution of each segment.

Lottery participation remained the most widely reported single activity, while sports betting registered measurable shares that varied by demographic group and by whether the wager occurred online or at a retail outlet. The report presents these splits without attributing causation, yet the figures show both categories operating at scale within the broader adult population.

Sports Betting Patterns Alongside Lottery Activity

Sports betting appears in the data as an activity that draws participants across multiple channels, with online platforms capturing the majority of reported volume. The survey recorded engagement with football, tennis, and horse racing markets during the reference period, and these results sit next to lottery figures in the published tables. Observers note that the two categories frequently appear together in respondent profiles, suggesting some individuals maintain both regular lottery habits and occasional sports wagers.

The 2025 wave captured responses during a period that included several major sporting calendars, yet the report limits itself to aggregate participation counts rather than event-specific spikes. Lottery draws continued on their fixed schedule, producing steady weekly and bi-weekly engagement that the survey instrument recorded separately from sports betting entries.

Comparison with 2023 Baseline Metrics

Placing the 2025 results against the 2023 wave allows direct inspection of any movement in overall participation and in the relative weight of sports betting versus lottery play. The Commission presents these comparisons in standardised tables that list both absolute percentages and changes expressed in percentage points, enabling straightforward assessment of stability or shift.

Because the survey uses the same four-week recall window in each wave, differences between the two datasets reflect changes in reported behaviour rather than alterations in question wording. The published material stops at the descriptive level, leaving interpretation of drivers to subsequent analyses by academics and policy groups.

Regulatory Context and Data Release Timing

The Gambling Commission issued the trends report in 2026, aligning with its statutory responsibility to publish annual statistics drawn from the GSGB programme. Stakeholders including licensed operators, treatment providers, and academic researchers now have access to the comparative tables for use in their own monitoring and planning cycles.

Links to the full dataset appear on the Commission website, and the trends report itself carries the formal title “Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB): Trends report 2023 to 2025.” The document remains the primary official source for population-level participation estimates covering the stated reference periods.

Conclusion

The release supplies a single, consistent set of metrics that place the 47 percent past-four-week participation rate alongside category-specific patterns for sports betting and lottery play. By limiting the scope to these two survey waves, the Commission has produced a focused comparison that interested parties can consult directly when reviewing adult gambling behaviour in Great Britain through January 2026.