According to the latest participation and problem gambling survey conducted by the UK Gambling Commission, the number of gamblers in the UK has dropped to 41.6% in June 2021.
Furthermore, the number of people at risk from gambling-related harm has also declined.
This drop represents a reduction of 3.5% compared to June 2020 and is also slightly lower than in the previous survey conducted in December 2020.
Gambling rates dropped for all gender and age categories, but it’s important to note that some categories were not high enough to be statistically significant.
Without factoring in the National Lottery and its products, a total of 28.3% of people gambled in some form during June 2021.
The reduction in gambling participation can be attributed to a drop in retail gambling, while the online branch actually saw an increase from 21.9% in 2020 to 24.7% in 2021.
Retail gambling is experiencing the sharpest decline, with only 17% participating in such activities during June 2021. The drop continues despite the easing of COVID-19 restrictions.
Compared to June 2020, retail gambling had a decline of 4.7%. The downward trend continues for the second year in a row, considering that in June 2019, 24.6% of the survey participants frequented retail locations for their gambling activities.
The Gambling Commission notes that online gambling is further helped by lottery players participating online more frequently than before.
The National Lottery saw an increase in the number of online players from 11.4% in 2020 to 13.8% in 2021.
Conversely, the number of in-person lottery participants dropped from 19.9% to 14.7% in 2021. It’s not surprising that the national lottery is the most popular activity among gamblers, of which 26.3% bought tickets in 2021. The number of players is similar to 2018, even though it dropped compared to 2019 and 2020.
Scratchcards are also getting less and less popular, with only 7.4% of participants buying them in 2021, compared to 9.2% in 2020.
Problematic gambling decreased significantly, with those at medium risk of gambling harm dropping from 1.4% to 0.7%. According to the survey, risky gambling declined from 4.2% in 2020 to 3.1% in 2021.
It’s great to see that problematic and risky gambling behaviour is on the decline. This is further helped by the top-notch online casino venues that use various responsible gambling tools to help their users enjoy gambling while avoiding problematic compulsive behaviour.
