Home > Prevalence of drug use and gambling survey: gambling results.

National Advisory Committee on Drugs and Alcohol. (2019) Prevalence of drug use and gambling survey: gambling results. Dublin: Department of Health.

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For the purpose of this survey, gambling includes the following activities: Buying a lottery ticket or scratch card, playing lottery games online, gambling in a bookmaker’s shop, gambling online or by telephone, placing a bet at a horse or dog race meeting, playing games at a casino, playing a gaming/slot machine, playing card games for money with friends/family and playing bingo.

It should be noted that key findings below are presented in the order of appearance in the bulletin content and are not intended to reflect the order of relevant importance of the findings. 

  • In the last year 64.5% report some form of gambling, while 41.4% report gambling on a monthly basis or more often.
  • The most common form of gambling is on lottery tickets or scratch cards, with 56.7% reporting this form of gambling in the last year, and 35.4% reporting this form of gambling on a monthly (or more frequent) basis.
  • Those aged 55-64 are most likely to report gambling in the last year (72.4%), followed by 35-44 year olds (70.5%) and 45-54 year olds (69.4%).
  • Almost one in ten 15-17 year olds bought a lottery ticket or scratch card in the last year, and 9.4% placed a bet at a horse or dog racing meeting. For males aged 15-17, 15.2% placed a bet at a horse or dog racing event in the last year, while 11.6% bought a lottery ticket or scratch card.
  • Those aged 55-64 are most likely to report gambling on a monthly basis or more frequently (49.4%).
  • Gambling online or by telephone is most prevalent in the 25-34 year old group (5.7%), followed by 18-24 year olds (4.8%).
  • Gambling online or by telephone is most prevalent in young males with 12.7% of 18-24 year olds and 15.6% 25-34 year olds gambling in this form in the last year.
  • Overall, a larger proportion of females report playing bingo (in person) than males. Females aged 18-24 report the highest proportion of bingo playing in the last year (10.1%).
    • Spending more than €250 in the last year on playing bingo in person is most common in females and increases with age (2.6% of females over 65 report spending more than €250 per year on playing bingo).
    • Of people who spent more than €250 on gambling in the last year, a larger proportion of people spent this money on lottery tickets or scratch cards (11.2%) than any other form of gambling.
    • The proportion who spent more than €250 in the last year on lottery tickets or scratch cards increases with age for both males and females.
    • Males who are over 65 years old are most likely to have spent more than €250 in the last year on lottery tickets or scratch cards (16.1%), followed by males aged 35-64 (14.4%) and females aged over 65 (14.2%).
    • Young males (15-34 year olds) are most likely to spend more than €250 placing bets on sporting events in a bookmaker’s shop, with 15.3% of young males reporting this form of gambling, more than double the proportion in the next nearest group (7.1% of males aged 35-64).
    • Spending more than €250 in the last year on sports events online or by telephone is most common in young males aged 15-34 (6.6%).
    • The prevalence of all gambling in the last year was highest among those in Group B (Middle Management senior civil servants, managers and owners of own business) (71.4%), and lowest among Group D (Semi-Skilled and unskilled manual workers, trainees and apprentices) (60.4%).
    • Problem gambling is most common in young males (2.9% in males aged 25-34 and 1.9% in males aged 18-24).
    • In response to the DSM-IV problem gambling questionnaire, 4.7% of males and 1.7% of females reporting chasing losses in the last 12 months.
Item Type
Report
Publication Type
Irish-related, Report
Drug Type
Behavioural addiction
Intervention Type
Screening / Assessment
Date
2019
Pages
16 p.
Publisher
Department of Health
Corporate Creators
National Advisory Committee on Drugs and Alcohol
Place of Publication
Dublin
EndNote
Accession Number
HRB (Electronic Only)

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