UK Gambling Commission Publishes Third GSGB Annual Report with 2025 Data and Multi-Year Trends

The UK Gambling Commission released its third annual Gambling Survey for Great Britain report in July 2026, presenting data collected throughout 2025 from 20,775 respondents along with a dedicated Trends report that tracks changes from 2023 through 2025. Fieldwork for the 2025 wave ran from January 2025 to January 2026, delivering the third consecutive year of comparable official statistics on gambling behaviors, attitudes, and harms across Great Britain.

Survey Scope and Methodology

Researchers designed the GSGB to capture a broad picture of gambling activity through a large, nationally representative sample, and the 2025 edition maintains the same core methodology used in prior years so direct comparisons remain valid. The addition of the Trends report allows observers to examine shifts across three full years rather than isolated snapshots, which strengthens the ability to identify genuine patterns in participation and problem gambling indicators.

Data collection covered adults across England, Scotland, and Wales, with questions addressing frequency of play, preferred gambling formats, attitudes toward gambling, and experiences of harm measured through the Problem Gambling Severity Index. The consistent instrument across waves means that any observed stability or change rests on the same measurement foundation.

Participation Rates Remain Steady

Figures from the latest release show gambling participation holding at levels comparable to the two previous years, indicating no dramatic expansion or contraction in overall engagement during the 2023–2025 period. This stability appears across multiple gambling activities, including lotteries, sports betting, casino games, and online slots, according to the aggregated results.

The Trends report breaks participation down by demographic groups and product types, revealing that while certain formats experienced minor fluctuations, the overall proportion of adults who gambled in the past year did not move outside the narrow band recorded since 2023. Those who have examined the full dataset note that this consistency holds even as new products and regulatory adjustments entered the market.

Problem Gambling Rates Hold at 2.4 Percent

The headline statistic on problem gambling shows the rate of PGSI 8+ remaining at 2.4 percent across the three-year window covered by the Trends report. This figure represents individuals whose responses place them in the highest risk category on the Problem Gambling Severity Index, and its unchanged position suggests that the prevalence of severe harm has not shifted materially since the survey began producing comparable data.

Additional PGSI bands receive detailed treatment in both the annual report and the Trends document, allowing readers to track moderate-risk and low-risk categories alongside the problem gambling measure. The full distribution of scores provides a more granular view than the single headline rate alone, and analysts have already begun comparing these distributions year over year to assess whether movement at lower severity levels precedes or follows changes at the problem gambling threshold.

Attitudes, Behaviors, and Harms in Focus

Beyond participation and problem gambling prevalence, the 2025 GSGB collects information on public attitudes toward gambling regulation, perceived availability of support services, and self-reported experiences of financial, emotional, or relationship harms. The Trends report places these attitude and harm items side by side for 2023, 2024, and 2025, revealing which elements have remained constant and which show movement.

Because the survey now spans three years, researchers can begin to distinguish between short-term variation and longer-term trends in how people perceive gambling-related harms and the effectiveness of existing safeguards. The Commission presents these findings without commentary on causation, leaving interpretation to external analysts and policymakers who may wish to link the data to specific regulatory actions or market developments.

Three Years of Comparable Data Now Available

The release marks the first time the GSGB has produced a full three-year comparable series, and the dedicated Trends report was created specifically to highlight year-on-year and cumulative changes. Prior to this point, observers had only two years of data collected under the current methodology, which limited the conclusions that could be drawn about directionality.

With the new report, the Commission supplies both the raw annual figures and the summarized trend tables in a single package, making it easier for stakeholders to access the longitudinal picture. The Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB): Trends report 2023 to 2025 sits alongside the main 2025 annual report on the regulator’s website, providing two complementary documents that together cover participation, problem gambling, and broader attitude measures.

Conclusion

The July 2026 publication supplies the third annual data point and the first multi-year trends analysis under the GSGB framework, establishing a clearer baseline for future comparisons. Stable participation and a steady 2.4 percent problem gambling rate constitute the central findings, while the expanded Trends report offers additional context on attitudes and harms across the 2023–2025 period. Stakeholders now have three years of consistent statistics with which to monitor developments in gambling behavior across Great Britain.