UK Gambling Commission Publishes Third GSGB Annual Report on Participation and Behaviours

The UK Gambling Commission has released the third annual report from the Gambling Survey for Great Britain, which compiles official statistics on participation, behaviours, attitudes, and consequences for the period covering 2023 through 2025, and observers note that headline figures show steady engagement levels among adults aged 18 and over.

Participation reached 47 percent of adults who gambled in the past four weeks during 2025, while the rate drops to 27 percent when lottery-only players are excluded, and researchers point out these numbers have held stable compared with prior waves of the survey.

Participation Trends and Motivations

Data from the survey indicates that the chance to win big money stands as the leading reason cited by 84 percent of participants, followed by fun at 69 percent, the goal of making money at 57 percent, and excitement at 53 percent, which together paint a picture of why people continue to engage with gambling activities across Great Britain.

Those who have examined the full dataset find that motivations remain consistent year over year, and the figures reveal no sharp shifts in the primary drivers even as overall participation stays level, while the report links these attitudes directly to reported outcomes in the same respondent group.

Problem Gambling Rates and Player Sentiment

Problem gambling prevalence measured by a PGSI score of 8 or higher stayed at 2.4 percent, a figure that matches previous annual releases and leads experts to describe the rate as unchanged across the three-year window, and most gamblers, specifically 78 percent, described their feelings toward their own activity as positive or neutral.

The survey also captures broader consequences, yet the stable prevalence and sentiment numbers suggest that the majority of participants do not report negative effects, while a smaller segment accounts for the identified problem gambling cases that the Commission continues to monitor through ongoing data collection.

Further breakdowns in teh report separate lottery players from other forms of gambling, which helps clarify why the 27 percent non-lottery rate receives attention from analysts who track behavioural differences across product types, and the same data shows how attitudes vary when lottery participation is set aside.

Survey Methodology and Scope

The Gambling Survey for Great Britain draws on a large sample to produce nationally representative statistics, and the third annual edition extends the time series that began with earlier releases, allowing direct comparison of trends from 2023 onward, while the Commission emphasises that the methodology supports reliable tracking of both participation and harm indicators.

Figures reveal that attitudes toward gambling remain largely steady, with positive or neutral responses dominating the responses, and the report connects these findings to the stable problem gambling rate without indicating any acceleration in either direction during the covered years.

Implications for Ongoing Monitoring

Because the participation rates and PGSI scores show continuity rather than movement, regulators and researchers gain a clearer baseline for future comparisons, and the inclusion of both lottery and non-lottery segments allows targeted analysis of different market segments within Great Britain.

The Commission publishes these statistics as part of its regular programme, which means the 2025 data now sits alongside the two prior annual reports and supplies additional context for anyone tracking behavioural patterns over time, while the 78 percent positive or neutral sentiment figure offers one measure of how participants view their own involvement.

Conclusion

The third annual GSGB report therefore supplies updated official statistics that confirm steady participation at 47 percent overall and 27 percent excluding lottery play, alongside unchanged problem gambling prevalence at 2.4 percent and largely positive or neutral attitudes among 78 percent of gamblers, and these numbers together form the core factual record for 2023 to 2025 that stakeholders can reference in ongoing discussions about gambling in Great Britain.