Communities Minister Gordon Lyons was asked about gambling levels in Northern Ireland over the past five years
Gambling can take many different forms(Image: Getty Images)
Gambling appears to be on the decline in Northern Ireland, but online gambling in particular seems to be growing, Northern Ireland’s Communities Minister has said.
There have been growing calls for reform of gambling regulations in recent years, but the overall trend shows that the number of people participating in gambling has been decreasing over the past decade.
Communities Minister Gordon Lyons was asked about gambling levels in Northern Ireland over the past five years by Fermanagh and South Tyrone MLA Diana Armstrong.
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She wrote to the Minister through Stormont’s written Assembly Questions mechanism, to ask him to “detail whether there has been an increase or decrease in the levels of online gambling since the COVID-19 pandemic”.
The Minister’s response relied on data published in the Northern Ireland Gambling Prevalence Survey.
He said: “My Department does not hold data that shows the prevalence of online gambling since the COVID-19 pandemic specifically. However, whilst showing an overall decreasing trend in any form of gambling participation here, from 67% in 2016 to 57% in 2024, results of Northern Ireland Gambling Prevalence Surveys indicate that the proportion of those who had gambled online in the previous twelve-month period increased from 15.8% to 23% in the same time period.”
The most recent survey found that 29% of people gambled in some way “at least once a week”, with 13% gambling “less than once a week but at least once a month”, and 15% gambling “less than once a month but at least once a year”.
Males were more likely to be gamblers, with just 36% saying they didn’t gamble at all in 2024 compared to nearly half (49%) of women.
Men were also more likely to gamble frequently, with 36% doing so once a week compared to just 22% of women.
In terms of marital status, those who are divorced or separated were most likely to be frequent gamblers with 38% taking a punt of some shape at least once a week.
For married people, 29% gambled at least once a week and for singletons it was 32%. Those who said they were widowed were least likely to gamble weekly, at 12%.
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