Wealthy vs. poor
Asked if they had gambled in the past year, 71% of higher-income households said they had, along with 54% of those from lower-income households.
However, while 1% of the wealthier respondents were deemed at moderate-to-high risk of gambling problems, the risk for those who were poorer was three times as high (3%).
With lower discretionary incomes, even modest spending on gambling is likely to be a higher share of the household’s total spending.
Two thirds of respondents said they gambled in 2018, with buying a lottery ticket topping the list (52%) followed by instant win lottery tickets, online games, electronic terminals, sports, and casino.
At 4%, speculative financial markets activity ranked alongside bingo in popularity. Although when split by gender, 6% of men favoured speculative financial markets with the same share of women preferring bingo.
