No single regulator or company report supports a flat claim that 70% of online gamblers are aged 18 to 39. What the available data does show is more specific and, in places, contradictory: US operator-spend data and one large consumer survey both put adults aged 25-44 at roughly 60-65% of sportsbook customers, a European market-research estimate puts the 25-40 cohort at just under half of regional online gambling revenue, and the newest Bank of America card-transaction analysis suggests Gen X and Baby Boomers together account for barely 12% of bets. Yet Great Britain’s official regulator survey shows overall participation is still highest among 45- to 64-year-olds, and one of the fastest-growing segments recently has been men 55 and older. The “youth takeover” story is real in specific channels but overstated as a universal law of the market.
Key takeaways
- US data from YouGov and a Facteus bank-transaction analysis both show adults roughly 25-44 make up the majority of sportsbook customers and spend, with millennials the single largest cohort.
- A 2026 Bank of America review of card-transaction data found Gen X accounted for only 9% of bets and Baby Boomers just 3%, implying under-45s dominate bet volume in that dataset.
- European market-research firm Mordor Intelligence estimates the 25-40 age band held just under half of the region’s online gambling market in 2025.
- Great Britain’s official Gambling Survey tells a different story: overall participation is highest among 45- to 64-year-olds, and non-lottery participation among men 55 and over is the fastest-growing segment in the regulator’s three-year survey history.
- Generational age bands (Gen Z, millennial, Gen X) are defined inconsistently across studies, which is one reason headline percentages vary so widely and are easy to misquote.
Table of contents
What the data actually shows
Claims about the age of online gamblers circulate widely, but they rarely originate from one consistent dataset. Some figures describe customer counts, others describe dollars spent, others describe year-over-year growth rates, and others describe lifetime participation rather than current activity. A statistic about “who has ever gambled online” and a statistic about “who placed a bet last week” can point in opposite directions even when drawn from the same age cohort. Before treating any single number as representative of the whole market, it is worth separating what is measured, where, and by whom.
US sportsbook and casino spending data
The clearest evidence for a younger-skewing US market comes from two independent sources. A YouGov survey of more than 2,000 US sports bettors found that
65% of sportsbook customers in the last 12 months are aged 25-44
. Separately, an analysis of bank-transaction data covering four major US operators found that
millennials are by far the largest segment of online gamblers, the most significant contributor for each of the four operators individually, representing 59% of all customers and 61% of the total spend recorded during the past year
.
The most recent addition to this picture is a Bank of America review of consumer card-transaction data reported in September 2026, which found that
only 9% of bets were from Gen Xers, and only 3% were from Baby Boomers
, with the bank noting that
Gen Z currently represents the biggest share of online bettors
. If accurate, that leaves the remaining roughly 88% of tracked bets split between Gen Z and millennials — a figure close to the “70%” framing found in casual industry commentary, though it describes bet volume in one card-data sample rather than the registered-user base of the market as a whole.
Frequency data reinforces the pattern among younger cohorts specifically. A Morgan Stanley survey of roughly 3,000 US bettors found that
younger bettors in the 21-34 age range remain a key cohort, with 60% placing at least three bets a week compared to the overall average of 47%, and the age group also led in average bet size, wagering approximately $58 per bet compared to the $49.50 overall average
. Onset data from the American Psychiatric Association adds a generational-formation angle:
one-third of those who reported online gambling daily said they began doing so between the ages of 18 and 25, with each ascending age range after 18-25 less likely to report having begun gambling during that time
, suggesting the early-to-mid twenties is when online gambling habits are typically formed rather than abandoned.
Europe and the 25-40 cohort
Outside the US, market-research estimates point to a similar but less extreme concentration. Mordor Intelligence’s coverage of the European online gambling market found that
the 25-40 cohort held 46.98% share of the Europe online gambling market size in 2025
. That is a plurality, not a supermajority, and it leaves room for meaningful participation from both under-25s and the 40-plus population — a more moderate picture than the US bet-volume figures above.
The UK counter-narrative: older bettors are growing fastest
Great Britain’s Gambling Commission runs the largest and most methodologically rigorous ongoing gambling-participation survey in any regulated market, and its most recent wave complicates the youth-dominance narrative considerably. The regulator’s official statistics state plainly that
overall gambling participation is highest among those aged 45 to 64 (54 to 56 percent); however, when those who only participated on a lottery draw are excluded, the age profile shifts downward, showing that those aged 35 to 44 have the highest participation
. Even after stripping out lottery-only players — the adjustment most likely to favor younger, digitally-native bettors — the 35-44 bracket leads, not 18-34.
More striking still is the direction of recent change. Industry press coverage of the same survey wave reported that
men aged 55 and over were the only group to record a statistically significant increase in non-lottery gambling participation
, while
non-lottery participation among men aged 18 to 34 went from 54% to 51% during the same period
and
the 35 to 54 bracket fell from 49% to 48%
. Participation among the oldest tracked cohort also rose:
participation in non-lottery gambling among people aged 65 to 74 rose from 25% in 2023 to 29% in 2025
. In Great Britain’s regulated market, the age trend line is currently pointing toward older players, not younger ones.
US survey data shows a milder version of the same nuance. A Fairleigh Dickinson University poll of registered voters found that
online betting on sports is concentrated among young men — only 10 percent of voters say they’ve bet on sports or racing online in the last year, but that figure rises to 26 percent for men under the age of 45
. That is a meaningful skew toward under-45s, but “under 45” is a much wider net than “18-39,” and it still leaves a substantial share of activity outside the narrower band.
Why headline age statistics vary so widely
Part of the confusion around figures like “70% aged 18-39” stems from inconsistent generational definitions. Different research houses draw the boundary between Gen Z and millennials, and between millennials and Gen X, in different places, and those boundaries move as calendar years pass. One widely used industry convention defines
Gen Z as 18 to 26 years old, Gen Y or millennials as 27 to 43, Gen X as 44 to 59, and Baby Boomers as 60 to 78
— a scheme under which “millennials and Gen Z combined” already spans ages 18 to 43, close to but not identical with the “18-39” figure in circulation. A separate credit-bureau tracking exercise found that
betting activity growth was primarily among Gen Z and millennial bettors, at 34% and 42% year-over-year respectively
— a growth-rate statistic that says nothing about the current share of the total customer base, yet is easily conflated with one in secondary reporting. Treat any age statistic that does not name its source survey, sample size, and exact age-band definition with the same skepticism our algorithm applies to unverified operator marketing claims — a principle covered in more depth on our natural language processing and sentiment analysis hub.
| Source | Market | Metric | Age band | Reported figure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| YouGov (via Covers) | US sports betting | Share of 12-month customers | 25-44 | 65% |
| Facteus bank-data analysis | US online gambling (4 operators) | Share of customers / spend | Millennials | 59% / 61% |
| Bank of America (card data) | US online betting | Implied share of bets (100% minus Gen X and Boomer share) | Gen Z + millennials | ~88% |
| Mordor Intelligence | Europe online gambling | Market size share, 2025 | 25-40 | 46.98% |
| UK Gambling Commission (GSGB Wave 4) | Great Britain | Non-lottery participation, highest bracket | 35-44 | Highest of all bands |
| UK Gambling Commission (via trade press) | Great Britain | YoY change in non-lottery participation, men 18-34 | 18-34 | 54% → 51% (declining) |
What the shift means for operators and players
Where the under-45 concentration is genuine — US sports betting and mobile-first casino products in particular — it shows up in product design choices operators have already made: parlay-heavy bet slips, faster in-play markets, and app-native onboarding all track the frequency and bet-size patterns of the 21-34 cohort described in the Morgan Stanley data above. Operators chasing this segment tend to prioritize speed and social features over the loyalty-tier and desktop-friendly design that still matters to the 45-64 cohort the UK regulator identifies as the largest overall participation group. This bifurcation is one reason a single operator can simultaneously look “young-skewing” in US market-share surveys and “middle-aged-skewing” in European or British participation data — the underlying regulatory environment, product mix, and marketing channel all shape who shows up in the numbers. For a deeper look at how regional regulation shapes these differences, see our regional deep dives and global split hub, and for the revenue-side context behind why operators target specific age cohorts, see the macro economics of iGaming hub.
For players, the practical takeaway is that age-based marketing claims — “built for a new generation of bettors,” or similar language — are rarely backed by the kind of verifiable, methodologically transparent data a regulator like the UK Gambling Commission publishes. Independent players should weigh operator claims about their own user base with the same skepticism applied to any other unverified marketing statistic.
Frequently asked questions
Is it accurate to say 70% of online gamblers are aged 18 to 39?
No single regulator, academic study, or listed-company report we found states this figure directly. The closest supporting evidence is a 2026 Bank of America card-data review in which Gen X and Baby Boomers combined accounted for roughly 12% of bets, implying a large under-45 majority in that specific dataset — but that is bet volume in one sample, not registered users across the market.
Which age group spends the most on US online gambling?
Bank-transaction analysis of four major US operators found
millennials represented 59% of all customers and 61% of total spend
over the study period, making them the single largest spending cohort, ahead of Gen Z, Gen X, and Baby Boomers individually.
Are older adults gambling online more than they used to?
In Great Britain, yes. The Gambling Commission’s most recent survey wave found
men aged 55 and over were the only demographic group to record a statistically significant increase in non-lottery gambling participation
, alongside rising participation among 65- to 74-year-olds.
Why do different reports give such different age percentages?
Studies measure different things: customer counts versus dollars spent versus growth rates versus lifetime participation, and generational age bands (Gen Z, millennial, Gen X cutoffs) are defined inconsistently between research firms, which makes headline percentages easy to misquote or combine incorrectly.
Does the concentration of younger bettors change problem-gambling risk?
Survey data suggests elevated risk among young men specifically: an FDU poll found
ten percent of men aged 18-30 scored as having a gambling problem, compared to just 3 percent of the overall population
, indicating the risk concentration among young bettors is real even where overall market-share claims are overstated.
Methodology
For demographic claims like this one, GamblScout.com’s algorithm cross-references operator-facing marketing language and scraped app-store audience data against third-party research (bank-transaction panels, regulator participation surveys, and market-research estimates) rather than relying on any single source. Discrepancies between an operator’s stated audience and independently verified figures are flagged as part of our broader data-scraping and scoring process, described on our data scraping and technical engine hub and scoring system and algorithmic weights hub.
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