Four out of 10 using online accounts for sport betting go on to other forms of gambling

Almost four in 10 people who use online accounts to bet on horse racing or sport go on to other forms of gambling such as casino games and lotteries, new research says.

Most regular gamblers have more than one on-line account, accord to a study published by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and Gambling Regulator of Ireland (GRAI).

Almost four in 10 participants who opened bookmaker’s accounts to bet on horses or sport moved into other forms of gambling, including lotteries and online casinos and slots, the study shows.

Around 10 per cent of the 1,000 people questioned in the study said they had four or more accounts.

One in seven said emails or app notifications prompted their most recent gambling session.

Anne Marie Caulfield, GRAI chief executive, said the authority needed to understand the “real-life experiences of consumers when they gamble in their everyday lives”.

Many gamblers bet for entertainment without experiencing harm, Pete Lunn, head behavioural research, at the ESRI, acknowledged.

The authority and institute published Patterns of online and in-person gambling in Ireland by Deirdre Robertson, Diarmaid Ó Ceallaigh, Shane Timmons and Pete Lunn, on Wednesday afternoon.