Commission stats show dominance of National Lottery in UK gambling
The UK Gambling Commission’s (UKGC) annual survey has once again shown that lotteries are by far the most common form of gambling in the country, though also the one associated with the least amount of risk.
The data from the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB) showed that 48% of the 19,714 people surveyed had participated in some form of gambling over the previous four weeks – but this figure fell to 28% when people participating in lottery draws were ruled out.
A total of 19% took part in lottery draws, either via the National Lottery or through charity lottery draws,during the timeframe. Following lottery draws, scratchcards were the second most common form of gambling at 12%, followed by sports betting at 10% and online instant win games at 7%.
It’s noteworthy that even the second most played form of gambling, scratchcards, are a lottery product, with the vast majority of purchased scratchcards in the UK being National Lottery produced ones.
The significance of lotteries can be seen in both a retail and online sense. Regarding the former, online gambling participation falls from 37% to 17% when lottery draws are removed while the latter sees participation fall from 28% to 18% when draws are excluded.
For the past few years, some in the betting and gaming industries have argued that lotteries should be held to the same regulatory standards as themselves, given the extent of lottery participation in Great Britain.
However, there is a slight argument against this, that being that lotteries are, for the most part, much lower risk products.
The UKGC’s data does appear to confirm this, with weekly participation in slots, betting on non-sports events online, the use of non-National Lottery scratchcards, and both online and retail in-play betting, seeing a much stronger association with higher rates of problem gambling than lotteries.
Lotteries, both the National Lottery and society lotteries, can take some confidence from this – firstly that their products are safer than others and less likely to cause societal impacts, and secondly that they are less likely to come up against regulatory headwinds.
Andrew Rhodes, CEO of the Gambling Commission, recently recognised the National Lottery as the ‘crown jewel’ of British gambling, in an address to the lottery’s operator Allwyn, showing that the lottery remains in good regulatory stead for the most part.
However, Rhodes did also note that due to the lottery’s status in British society, it should expect to be held to high standards.
https://lotterydaily.com/2025/10/02/highlighted/commission-lotteries-data/