Three Years of Comparable Data Mark Milestone for Gambling Survey in Great Britain

The Gambling Commission has released the third annual report from the Gambling Survey for Great Britain, and this edition stands out because it delivers the first set of three consecutive years of comparable official statistics covering 2023 through 2025. Researchers at the National Centre for Social Research and the University of Glasgow worked alongside the Commission to compile the findings from roughly 20,000 respondents each year, and the resulting dataset now tracks participation, behaviours, attitudes, and consequences across Great Britain with consistent methodology. Participation rates have held steady at 47 percent of adults who reported gambling in the past four weeks, while the problem gambling rate measured by a PGSI score of 8 or higher remained at 2.4 percent. These figures come directly from the latest wave of data collection and allow observers to compare trends across the full three-year span for the first time. The survey design emphasises large sample sizes so that year-on-year shifts can be identified with greater precision than earlier, less standardised approaches permitted.

Survey Methodology and Data Collection Approach

Each annual cycle draws on approximately 20,000 adults selected to represent the broader population, and the questions remain aligned across waves to support direct comparisons. The partnership between the Gambling Commission, the National Centre for Social Research, and the University of Glasgow ensures that fieldwork, weighting, and analysis follow established social research protocols. Data collection covers the four weeks prior to interview, which produces a rolling picture of recent gambling activity rather than lifetime prevalence alone.

Because the same instruments run for three years, analysts can now examine whether changes in participation or problem gambling scores reflect genuine movement or simply sampling variation. The 2023–2025 series therefore functions as a baseline that future waves can build upon without the comparability issues that affected earlier surveys.

Key Statistics from the 2025 Report

The headline participation figure of 47 percent sits alongside the stable problem gambling rate of 2.4 percent, and both numbers have shown little movement across the three-year window. The report also presents additional breakdowns by age, gender, and gambling type, although the core stability in overall rates remains the most prominent finding. Those who study the data note that the large annual sample reduces the margin of error around these percentages, giving regulators and researchers clearer signals than smaller or non-comparable surveys could provide. Further sections of the report explore attitudes toward gambling and self-reported consequences, yet the participation and PGSI metrics receive the most attention because they now rest on three aligned data points. The consistent methodology means that any future deviation will stand out against this established reference.

Implications for Ongoing Monitoring

With three years of comparable statistics in hand, the Gambling Commission and its academic partners can track whether the current stability persists or gives way to measurable shifts. The survey continues to run on the same schedule, so the next annual release will add a fourth data point to the series and extend the trend line. Observers point out that the existing framework already allows direct comparison of behaviours and attitudes, which supports evidence-based discussions about gambling across Great Britain.

The report itself appears on the Commission’s statistics pages, and the underlying dataset remains available for secondary analysis by universities and policy groups. This open approach lets additional researchers test new questions against the same core sample without having to recreate the sampling frame.

Conclusion

The publication of the third annual Gambling Survey for Great Britain report supplies the first three-year run of comparable official statistics on participation, problem gambling, and related measures. The 47 percent participation rate and 2.4 percent problem gambling rate have remained consistent across 2023, 2024, and 2025, and the scale of roughly 20,000 respondents per year underpins the reliability of those findings. The collaboration among the Gambling Commission, the National Centre for Social Research, and the University of Glasgow continues to generate data that regulators and academics can use to monitor trends in the years ahead.