Though it seemed like there had been a great increase in gambling, the recently released British Gambling Prevalence Survey showed that both the number of people gambling and the proportion of gambling addicts have not grown substantially in the last few years.

Gambling figures for 2007 are similar to those from 1999. This goes against predictions and media coverage, which portrayed the gambling industry as fast growing and potentially dangerous. What has really grown is online gambling, the variety of scratch cards and some new installed casinos.

According to the report, about 32 million adults have participated in some sort of gambling activity in the past year –including National Lottery and scratch cards-. Only 6 percent wagered online – half of them in poker games, casino games or bookmakers.

The number of ‘problem gamblers’ is estimated at 250,000; that would be less than one percent of the total number of gamblers. Still, there are more areas to be analyzed. The effects of gambling on society are yet to be studied.