Number of online ‘grey gamblers’ jumps by 1million

OVER-55s are the fastest growing group of online gamblers, figures released yesterday said.

One million more ‘grey gamblers’ use smartphones, tablets and PCs to bet online compared with 2016. A total of 2.2million over-55s now gamble regularly online.

The 83 per cent rise is the biggest in any age group and almost twice that amongst millennials, figures from industry regulator, the Gambling Commission, said. The overall increase in the same period is 55 per cent.

The number of those over 55 with social media accounts has risen steadily for five years, reflecting their use of internetenabled smartphones.

Older web users are far more likely to use their mobile or a tablet to go online than to use a laptop or desktop computer.

Four out of ten baby boomers said they had a smartphone, an increase from 2015 when fewer than 30 per cent had one. Some of the increase in online gambling activity can be put down to the Postcode Lottery, popular with older people, moving online.

The Gambling Commission surveyed 4,000 people and found that in the year to March 2016 6.8 per cent of 55- to 64-year- olds had gambled online over the previous four weeks.

Three years later that figure had increased to 16.3 per cent – an extra 740,000 online players. For those aged 65 or over, the increase was 265,000. Compared with over-55s, there are around 300,000 more young people, aged 16-34, who bet regularly online but the rise has not been as marked.

The growth of online betting, which has allowed industry profits to boom, has reflected the move away from betting in person.

Matt Zarb-Cousin, of Fairer Gambling, said: ‘As more gamblers move online, we’re needing more concessions from online gambling operators that they will reduce harm or the voices in favour of prohibition will only grow louder.’