Gambling: data

Data on gambling behaviour in Scotland focuses on gambling participation, at-risk gambling and problem gambling. Tables 1-2 below show data from the 2021 Scottish Health Survey on gambling participation (Table 1), and at-risk and problem gambling based on the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) measure (Table 2). Table 3 shows how rates of problem gambling vary by area deprivation within the 2017 Scottish Health Survey (2021 data available soon).

In 2021, over half of Scottish adults reported gambling in the past year (61% of men and 56% of women, table 1), and according to the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI), around 0.4% of Scottish adults were classified as experiencing problem gambling (table 2), with more men than women (0.7 and 0.1 respectively) affected. In 2017, prevalence of problem gambling appeared to be higher in the most deprived areas (1.2) than the least deprived (0.3). Figures for table 3 come from supplementary tables published with the 2017 Scottish Health Survey and figures from tables 1-2 come from the 2021 Scottish Health Survey. Further background information is available in Chapter 9 of the 2017 Scottish Health Survey report and Chapter 9 of the 2021 Scottish Health Survey.

**Table 1: Self-reported participation in gambling among adults (aged 16 and over) during the past year, by gender and type of gambling, Scotland, 2021.**
Gambling participation	Men (%)	Women (%)	All (%)
National Lottery Draw	43	39	41
Scratchcards	16	20	18
Other lotteries	15	18	17
Football pools	7	1	4
Bingo (not online)	2	5	4
Slot machines	5	3	4
Machines in a bookmakers	4	1	2
Table games in a casino	2	2	1
Poker in a pub/club	1	0	0
Online casino/bingo/slot style games	5	5	5
Online betting with a bookmaker	18	4	11
Betting exchange	2	1	1
Betting on horses with a bookmaker (not online)	9	4	6
Betting on dogs with a bookmaker (not online)	1	0	1
Betting on sports events with a bookmaker (not online)	7	1	4
Betting on other events with a bookmaker (not online)	2	0	1
Spread-betting	1	0	1
Private betting/gambling	4	2	3
Any other gambling	2	1	2
All past year gambling	61	56	58
Any online gambling (not National Lottery)	20	9	14

Source: Scottish Health Survey, 2021.

**Table 2: At risk and problem gambling among adults aged 16 years and over, by gender, Scotland 2021, based on problem gambling severity index (PGSI) score**
PGSI score	2017 (%)
Men
0: Non-problem gambler / non-gambler	91.8
1-2: Low risk gambler	5.5
3-7: Moderate risk gambler	2.1
8+: Problem gambler	0.7
Women
0: Non-problem gambler / non-gambler	95.3
1-2: Low risk gambler	3.6
3-7: Moderate risk gambler	1.0
8+: Problem gambler	0.1
All
0: Non-problem gambler / non-gambler	93.7
1-2: Low risk gambler	4.5
3-7: Moderate risk gambler	1.5
8+: Problem gambler	0.4

Source: Scottish Health Survey 2021.

**Table 3: Prevalence of problem gambling according to either the DSM-IV or PGSI, by Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation Scotland (age-standardised), 2017.**
SIMD quintile	%
1st (least deprived)	0.3
2nd	0.5
3rd	1.2
4th	0.9
5th (most deprived)	1.2

Source: Scottish Health Survey 2017, supplementary tables.

Please note: If you require the most up-to-date data available, please check the data sources directly as new data may have been published since these data pages were last updated. Although we endeavour to ensure that the data pages are kept up-to-date, there may be a time lag between new data being published and the relevant ScotPHO web pages being updated.