NHS Health Survey Reveals 5% of Adults at Risk of Gambling Addiction

NHS England published the Health Survey for England on January 27, and it found some pretty damning figures for England’s gambling industry. 5% of the participants of the survey displayed at-risk gambling behaviours, while 1% were labelled problem gamblers. If you were to extrapolate those figures, we are talking about ~3.5 million at risk of gambling addiction, and ~700,000 problem gamblers in the UK. The survey, analyzing the Adult’s health related behaviours in 2024, is published by the Health and Safety Executive in Great Britain, the national independent regulator for work-related health and safety.

These reports were carried out every year since 1991, until they were stopped in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But the HSE Survey was relaunched in 2024, analyzing data from January 2024 until the spring of 2025. There has been no response yet from the UK’s Gambling Watchdog, but now the efforts will surely focus on finding out why the problem gambling figures are so high, and what can be done to prevent the numbers from rising in 2026.

UK’s HSE Behaviour Report

The Health Survey for England is not just restricted to gambling, it primarily focuses on working related health issues as well as adult behaviours – gambling only makes a part of the latter. Under adult health related behaviors, the survey looks into alcohol consumption, physical activity, e-cigarette and smoking patterns, as well as gambling participation. These studies are not limited to specific regions or demographics. They target people all across England, regardless of race, sex, financial status and age. On average, they get around 10,000 participants, of which 8,000 are adults and 2,000 are children.

The 2024 HSE survey is very detailed and when it comes to gambling figures, it covers a lot of territory. First, gambling is defined by 4 categories: Lotteries and Related Products, Machines/Games, Betting Activities, and Other. Within Machine/Games, you have all the slot machines, physical bingo, landbased UK casino games, and even a subcategory for online slots and casino games. Betting comprises online bookies, betting exchanges, betting at physical racetracks or high street UK betting shops, and even private betting.

The idea is to assess people, asking them a set of 9 questions and rating their scores against the PSGI. This is a gambling screening test, that determines whether players are not at risk, at low to high risk, or have a gambling problem.

What is PSGI and How It Works

The figures drawn from the questions are measured against the Problem Gambling Severity Index. This is a rating that goes from 0 to 27, and participants have to answer questions that are scored on a 4 point scale – from “0” up to “3”. They are the types of questions you would get on gambling self assessment tools or similar surveys, including the likes of:

• Have you borrowed money or sold anything to get money to gamble?
• When you gambled, did you go back another day to try and win back the money you lost?
• Have you needed to gamble with larger amounts of money to get the same excitement?

If you have chased your losses, lost control while gambling, or experience loss aversion and need to bet more aggressively to experience the gambler’s highs, then you get higher scores for each answer, like 2 or 3. After answering the 9 questions, your points are added and measured against the following chart.

• Non Problem Gamblers: PSGI = 0
• Low Risk: PSGI = 1-2
• Moderate Risk: PSGI = 3-7
• Problem Gamblers: PSGI = 8+

The concise, 9-question survey touches on health problems, financial problems, underplaying risks, chasing losses, tolerance to vices, and other adverse impacts of gambling.

Problem Gambling Figures

The big headline here is that the survey estimated that 5% of the UK could be at risk of problem gambling. Of the 10,000 respondents, 5% (500) had a PSGI rating of 1 or higher, and thus are technically classified as being at a risk (from low-risk to high-risk). Only 1% of the respondents were deemed to be problem gamblers, but if that figure is extrapolated to the UK’s population (near 70 million), you get 700,000 gamblers with a problem.

But that was not the only stat that you should be looking at here. The HSE also stated that the proportion of adults participating in gambling went down from 65% in 2012 to 48% in 2024. And, the English gambling preferences leaned heavily towards lottery products over anything else.

Most popular gambling activities:

• tickets for National Lottery Draw (31%)
• tickets for other lotteries (16%)
• scratchcards (13%)
• online betting with a bookmaker (7%)
• betting on horse races at a bookmaker, by phone or at a racecourse (6%)

The National Lottery and other lottery products were the most popular form of gambling, and for practically all ages. Online gambling was more prominent in the 16-24, 25-34, and 35-44 demographics, with a big drop off after 75+.

Comparisons to the GSGB 2024 Study

The HSE may be the official NHS survey for health related behaviours, but for gambling specifically, the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB), is arguably more accurate. Because this is the survey conducted by the UK Gambling Commission, and it is a far newer and more gambling-focused poll. The key differences between the two are that:

• GSGB relies heavily on online survey panels
• HSE is part of a broader public health framework
• Different screening tools and thresholds are used at either

The 2024 GSGB, put the UK’s problem gambling figure at 2.7%, and had twice the number of respondents (around 20,000). The survey, which was released in late 2025, otherwise showed similar patterns, such as a dominance of lottery products, and higher risks among young adults. Though it also pointed to specific gambling activities such as slots and live sports betting as having stronger links to at-risk behaviours.

UKGC Plans for 2026

Much of the road ahead for the UKGC in 2026 is about tightening gambling regulations and enforcing stricter player protection laws. The UK’s industry is already prepping for the Autumn Budget tax hikes, which will affect online gaming from April this year, and sports betting from the following April (2027). This HSE study will no doubt add momentum to the UKGC, and key areas where they could pounce are the:

• Affordability and financial risk checks
• Proven high intensity gambling products (slots and live betting, for example)
• Early stage intervention programs

It may also prompt more transparency and correspondence between the UKGC and the NHS, to focus on player behaviours and the design of specific gambling products. Whether the UKGC responds with targeted refinements or broader structural changes remains to be seen, but with NHS backed data back in circulation, gambling harm is once again firmly on the national public health radar.