It appears that the UK gambling landscape is maturing, and not in a way the industry operatives were hoping to when they were launching aggressive marketing campaigns that cater to the millenial audience. In 2022, over half of the players who gamble online are aged 45+, and 20% of all online gamblers were senior citizens.
The most likely customer of games such as Evolution’s entertainment shows is now a person aged 45-54, and the trend is increasing.
In the last five years, the age group that has seen the largest increase in percentage of people who partake in online gambling were the 45-54 year olds. Over a third of Brits that belong to this age group are gambling online every month, whereas only one in every five was doing so in 2017.
The other two age groups that have seen a noticeable increase are 55-64 and 65+, indicating that the player base as a whole is getting older every year. Young people don’t show a noticeable trend one way or the other, as around 15% of people aged 16-24 gamble online, with 25-34 age group always being steady at around 25% as well.
In 2021, for the first time ever there were more senior citizens than young people under 24 gambling online. To access the entire statistical report click here.
The meteoric rise of senior gambling can’t even be fully attributed to the normal aging process of players, as at the very best the player can move from one age group to another over the course of five years. But the data shows something more serious – a stagnation in numbers of younger players, which would indicate that the player base is en route to a constant decline.
Furthermore, 2020 and 2021 were greatly influenced by the covid-19 lockdowns that forced young people to stay home more. Across the gambling industry there were reports of increased player participation. But now it appears that those players weren’t the young people, but quite the opposite.
It appears that the younger audience, glued to their smartphones and tik toks can’t really be bothered to place an online bet, spin a roulette wheel or play one of the live dealer games. Instead it’s the older people who are discovering technology and are making their way to placing an online bet of some sort.
