Gambling: key data sources
Scottish Health Survey
Questions about gambling were included in the Scottish Health Survey for the first time in the 2012 survey and are reported in chapter 9 of the 2012 survey main report. Questions covered participation in gambling, problem gambling and "at-risk" gambling. The 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2021 surveys also included questions on gambling, but these are largely reported in the supplementary tables for the surveys (supplementary web tables: 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2021). Summary data from the 2021 Scottish Health Survey are available here (see chapter 9 on gambling).
The British Gambling Prevalence Survey
The British Gambling Prevalence Survey included questions about the level and frequency of gambling participation, attitudes to gambling, problem gambling and motivations for gambling. There were three surveys, carried out in 1999, 2007 and 2010. Random samples of 7,700, 9,003 and around 7,500 adults were included in the three surveys. Around 700 Scots were included in each survey. Survey data are available from the UK Data Archive. The survey has now been replaced by data collected as part of the Scottish Health Survey and the Health Survey for England.
The Health Survey for England
The Health Survey for England (HSE) included questions about past year participation in gambling and problem gambling screens in the 2012, 2015, 2016 and 2018 surveys. Data from the 2015 HSE survey and 2015 Scottish Health Survey was combined and re-weighted for a report entitled Gambling behaviour in Britain (1.54MB) and published by the Gambling Commission. More recent figures from the 2018 HSE have now been published in supplementary tables.
The British Survey of Children, the National Lottery and Gambling, 2008-2009
This survey of the gambling habits of 8,958 children aged 11-15 in Great Britain (including 871 in Scotland) was commissioned by The National Lottery. Some results are presented separately for Scotland. Data are available on request from the Gambling Commission. More recently the Gambling Commission published findings from the 2023 Young People and Gambling Report.
Youth Omnibus Survey
The Gambling Commission publishes data on gambling participation and problem gambling among those aged 11-15 on a yearly basis. This only covers England and Wales. Reports are available on the Gambling Commission's website.
Other UK surveys
The Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey included questions on problem gambling screens in the 2007 survey. However the survey covers England only. The UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport carries out Taking Part: the National Survey of Culture, Leisure and Sport, which includes questions on gambling. However the survey covers only England for the period 2005-2008. More recent findings from gambling and lotteries questions within the Taking Part survey 2019/2020 are available.
