British gamblers are spending more than ever, and the arrival of a FIFA World Cup this summer is expected to accelerate that trend further. New data from Nationwide Building Society reveals that its customers’ gambling expenditure rose 9% in 2025 compared to the previous year, with a corresponding 7% increase in the number of individual transactions. The findings place the UK’s gambling habits in sharp relief at a time when both regulators and welfare organisations are watching the market closely.
The headline figure from Nationwide’s analysis is striking: the top 10% of gambling spenders among the building society’s 15 million members are spending an average of £745 per month on gambling activity. That is not a fringe behaviour. For context, it sits comfortably above the average UK household’s monthly spend on food and non-alcoholic drinks.
The scale of that spending points to a market that is growing in both volume and intensity — and one that is about to face its biggest seasonal stress test in years. For players keeping a closer eye on where they play as a result, WhichBingo, home of the new online casino sites reviewed and rated for UK players, provides independent guidance on the licensed options currently available.
The World Cup Factor
The 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off on 11 June, co-hosted across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. For UK gamblers, it represents a concentrated period of high-profile fixtures, heightened advertising exposure, and the particular kind of collective momentum that makes casual bettors out of people who rarely place a wager. Globally, an estimated $35 billion was bet on the 2022 Qatar World Cup, a figure that was itself 65% higher than the 2018 tournament in Russia. If that trajectory continues, the 2026 edition could see global betting volumes approach $50 billion across six weeks.
Nationwide’s survey of 2,000 gamblers found that 68% expected to spend more on gambling in 2026 than they did last year. The World Cup is the primary driver cited for that expectation, though the data suggests that underlying spend was already rising before the tournament entered the picture.
The Responsible Gambling Picture
The spending increase has not gone unnoticed by welfare organisations. GamCare’s National Gambling Helpline received 105,765 support requests in 2025. In January 2026 alone, the charity referred 996 callers to support systems, a 48% increase on the same month the previous year. That figure predates the World Cup entirely, and suggests that demand for gambling support is rising independently of any major sporting event.
GamCare’s Senior Partnerships Manager, Raminta Diliso, noted that gambling harm frequently operates as a hidden issue, with financial difficulties, mental health strain, and relationship problems among the most common consequences for those struggling. The charity operates a 24-hour helpline and provides counselling and other support services, and Nationwide works with GamCare directly as part of its customer vulnerability programme.
Nationwide’s Head of Customer Vulnerability, Kathryn Townsend, said the company was concerned that a year of major sporting events could draw in new bettors and push existing ones beyond comfortable limits. The building society offers a 72-hour cooling-off period for its gambling block, a deliberate design choice intended to prevent impulsive decisions to remove a protection that was put in place for good reason. One in five survey respondents, however, said they were unaware that such a block existed on their account at all — a finding that points to a significant awareness gap between the tools available and the people who might benefit from them.
What the Regulated Market Looks Like Now
The context for this spending increase matters. The UK online casino market has undergone substantial regulatory tightening in the past twelve months. A cap on casino bonus wagering requirements came into force in January 2026, limiting operators to a maximum 10x requirement on all bonus offers. Affordability checks, deposit limit tools, and enhanced player verification requirements are now standard features of the licensed market.
For players who choose to participate, the effect of those changes is that the regulated market is more transparent and more player-protective than it has been at any point in its history. New platforms launching under UK Gambling Commission licences must meet those standards from day one, and the most recently launched sites have built their products around that regulatory framework rather than retrofitting it.
That does not change the underlying dynamic the Nationwide data describes: more people are spending more money on gambling, and a significant minority are spending amounts that carry real financial risk. What it does mean is that the choice of where to play carries more consumer protection weight than it once did. Using licensed, regulated platforms — particularly newer ones built to current standards — gives players access to deposit limits, transaction monitoring, and self-exclusion tools that unlicensed sites are under no obligation to provide.
The World Cup will generate its own surge in activity regardless of what any regulator or building society reports. The question for consumers is whether the platforms they use are equipped to help them stay in control when the occasion pulls hardest in the other direction.