Global: Will rising inflation see bettors curtail their gambling?
July 6th, 2022, Janice Fernandes

Global: Will rising inflation see bettors curtail their gambling?

With the rising cost of living are bettors around the world going to continue gambling at the same level or will they look at cutting back?

In a recent YouGov poll, we asked consumers across 16 countries in which areas would they first make cutbacks if their household budget is squeezed. We screen this group to only include those who gamble or place a bet at least once a month.

More than half of global gamblers (55%) say they will first look at cutting down on eating out to maintain their monthly budget. Traveling (45%), shopping for clothes (41%) and ordering takeaway (39%) are some of the other areas in which bettors will consider reducing expenses. However, over a third of global gamblers (37%) say that betting is one of the areas they plan to cut back on first.

Individually, over half of Italian gamblers (51%) say they would look at cutting down on gambling as a priority, making the Italian market most vulnerable to inflation, and perhaps reflecting recent declines in GGR. At least around four in ten bettors in many larger European countries also say they would do the same including Spain (42%), Poland (41%), France (41%), Germany (40%). Britain is among the least likely markets, not just in Europe but in all the markets studied, to cut back on gambling as a priority but still we find 30% of gamblers say they will reduce expenses by cutting back on gambling.

American gamblers are slightly more likely than Britons to say they will cut down on gambling if inflation causes budget constraints (34% US vs. 30% GB). Bettors in the other North American markets are significantly more likely to look at going easy on gambling to keep their monthly expenses in check. Mexico registers the second-highest proportion of gamblers who pick gambling as an area they’ll look at cutting back on first. Slightly fewer but still around two in five gamblers in Canada (41%) also have the same outlook.

Bettors in most APAC markets are as likely as global gamblers to consider cutting back on gambling if the rising cost of living slashed their household budget – Australia (39%), Singapore (37%), Hong Kong (37%) and India (34%). China is the only country in all 16 markets to register less than a quarter of gamblers (23%) who will consider curtailing their gambling habits as a priority if it comes to it.

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Methodology: The data is based on the interviews of adults aged 18 and over in 18 markets with sample sizes varying between 508 and 2,065 for each market. All interviews were conducted online in May 2022. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from Mexico and India, which use urban representative samples, and Indonesia and Hong Kong, which use online representative samples.