Ethnic Minorities Face Higher Gambling Harm Risk in the UK

The new research published by the UK Gambling Commission on 27 October shows that although people from ethnic minority backgrounds in the UK gamble less often overall, they face a higher risk of gambling-related harm than White participants.

The study is based on data from the UK Gambling Survey for 2023, 2024 and 2025. Researchers from NatCen and the University of Glasgow combined findings from the three years and examined differences between White, mixed or multiple ethnic, Asian, Black and other groups. According to the results, gambling habits, risk levels and outcomes vary markedly between participants.

White participants stood out for gambling participation in the four weeks before the survey. However, most of this gap is due to greater participation in the National Lottery and charity raffles. When only those who bought lottery tickets are excluded, the overall participation gap narrows, and ethnic minority participants are seen to turn more often to other forms of gambling.

Mixed or multiple ethnic participants had the highest rate of participation in non-lottery activities. This group was about five times more likely than White participants to place physical bets on the outcomes of events. Mixed and Black participants were also more likely to take part in at least three different types of gambling over the four-week period.

The report found that PGSI (Problem Gambling Severity Index) scores were higher across all ethnic minority groups compared with White participants. The share scoring 8 or more, a sign of problem gambling, was 1.9 per cent among White participants and 7.7 per cent among mixed or multiple ethnic participants.

Researchers said demographic characteristics and socioeconomic circumstances explain part of the differences, but not most of the risk and negative outcomes. The fact that ethnic inequalities are even more pronounced among participants with low PGSI scores suggests that current risk measures do not fully capture the difficulties some individuals experience. A higher share of ethnic minority participants seek help, but need still outweighs provision. Around three quarters of those scoring 3 or more on the PGSI have not used any support service, regardless of their ethnic background.