TLDR Nearly 1 in 11 UK adults (around 1.6 million people) experienced harm from someone else’s gambling in 2024 73.7% of those affected reported at least one health consequence, with stress and anxiety being the most common Young women were disproportionately affected, making up 55% of the “affected others” group Only 14.5% of affected individuals sought help in the past year despite widespread harm The UK government has allocated £25.4 million to gambling-harm prevention services
The Gambling Commission has published new data showing that nearly one in 11 adults in Great Britain were harmed by someone else’s gambling during 2024.
The findings came from analysis of the Gambling Survey for Great Britain 2024. The survey gathered responses from 19,714 adults aged 18 and older.
Health and Relationship Consequences Top the List
According to the data, 48% of adults said someone close to them gambles. Around 9% of all adults, roughly 1.6 million people, said they experienced at least one negative consequence from another person’s gambling in the past 12 months.
Of those affected, 5.3% reported severe harms. A further 19% reported at least one potential negative consequence.
Health-related harms were the most common. Some 73.7% of those affected experienced at least one health consequence tied to another person’s gambling.
Stress and anxiety were the most reported specific harms at 57.9%. Shame or embarrassment followed at 52%. Increased conflict or arguments came in at 45.4%.
Relationship harms were reported by 65.3% of those affected. Financial and resource harms were reported by 42.5%.
More than one in four affected individuals, about 26.6%, reported at least one severe harm. These included relationship breakdowns, large financial losses, violence or abuse, and criminal activity.
Among severe cases, 74.3% cited relationship breakdown as a consequence.
Young Women and Problem Gambling Overlap
The data