What Are the Differences between Male and Female Gamblers?

Posted by Harry Kane on Tuesday, July 9, 2019

Back in 2014, it was revealed that 52% of all gamers in the UK were female. This sent shockwaves throughout the lucrative gaming industry, despite the fact that the data recorded three years previously showed that 49% of all gamers were women.

This suggests that people’s opinions are often informed by outdated stereotypes rather than real-time data sets, and arguably the same principle can be applied to gambling. This is also considered to be a predominantly male pastime, despite the fact that 59% of women participated in some form of gambling during 2017, at least according to research from the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC).

In contrast, 66% of men had gambled during the same period, revealing that there’s very little between the sexes in the world of virtual gambling. A difference of barely 7% counts nothing, especially taking into account the abovementioned stereotypes. But what are there any differences at all between male and female gamblers, and if so how are these defined? Which gender is on the high-roller side? Tag along and let’s find out!

The Gender Split – Gambling Across the Sexes

In total, the report commissioned by the UKGC found that 63% of adults had gambled at one time or another during 2017, with men only slightly more likely to wager and play games than their female counterparts.

The results garnered during this survey have been borne out by similar and subsequent studies, with one highlighting the precise gender split in the iGaming market.

This revealed that 56.2% of all gamblers were male, with the remaining 43.8% registered as women. The He Plays, She Plays study was commissioned by 888.com back in January 2016, and it’s fair to surmise that the gender gap has narrowed further in the three years since.

After all, developers have invested heavily in creating a range of diverse and innovative titles aimed at female slots, from the Legend of Cleopatra by Playson to Microgaming’s Titans of the Sun. As a result, casual female gamblers throughout the UK have been incentivised to wager on a more frequent basis, with women gradually becoming increasingly influential in the iGaming space.

The survey canvassed the opinion of around 1,000 respondents too, so it offers a broad and accurate insight into the composition of the gambling market in the UK.

Beyond the Headlines – What Аre the Immediate Differences Between Men and Women?

Whilst the split between male and female gamblers may be narrowing with every passing year, research has revealed some significant differences between men and women in the marketplace. Most of these are related to mindset, with men generally possessing a different outlook with regards to risk and the amounts wagered over a concerted period of time.

In terms of the former, one survey questioned respondents what they would do if they won a £500 pot online. Two-thirds claimed that they would bank this prize immediately, but there wasn’t more of a gender split when we break down these figures further.

In fact, a whopping 72.3% of female respondents said that they would claim their winnings and cease playing, whilst a relatively paltry 61% of men revealed that they would do the same.

This suggests that men have a greater appetite for risk than their female counterparts, as does the fact that males tend to wager more than women online.

Overall, women were far more likely to spend in the lowest weekly spending brackets of £1 to £10, as they look to manage their bankroll carefully and invest in small wagers over time. Conversely, twice as many men spend upwards of £500 per week than women when gambling, meaning that males are far more likely to be high-rollers and compete for the biggest cash prizes. Clearly men remain amongst the largest spenders in the iGaming marketplace, and therefore remain a key demographic for operations nationwide.

These statistics and insights into the male gambling psyche bring us neatly onto the issue of problem gambling, with men more likely to showcase addictive behaviour in the market. Incredibly, men are estimated to be 7.5 times more likely to become problem gamblers than women, and this is a seismic difference that needs to be kept in mind given the prevalence of addiction in the digital age.

It’s also been suggested that men and women tend to favour different games, and this betrays the outlook of both genders and their reasons for gambling in the first place. Some studies have proven that women typically frequented land-based casinos to socialise and enjoy a fun night out, whereas men frequent establishments to compete for big cash prizes.

This impacts directly on the games chosen by male and female players, whilst this behaviour has also been observed in the iGaming market.

Typically, women favour games of chance such as slot titles, as these tend to require less focus and strategy and enable players to mix with others. Conversely, men prefer table games that require higher levels of ability and an ability to strategise, including roulette, blackjack and even video poker.

In terms of numbers, just 26.5% of men cited slots as their favourite type of game, with the remaining 73.5% preferring other titles. In contrast, more than one-third of women (34%) chose slots as their favourite casino game, with 66% looking for an entirely different casino experience.

The Last Word – How will the Gender Split Change in the Future

Despite the rising number of female gamblers and an increasingly tight gender split in the iGaming market, there are overt differences between men and women when they wager online.

In addition to casino gaming and slot gameplay, women are also likely to become increasingly engaged with sports betting. In fact, up to 40% of females now admit to preferring placing wagers on sports outcomes rather than gambling in a casino, and this is creating another opportunity for women to carve out a clear niche in the iGaming market.

This is an interesting development, as whilst sports betting fits with the strategic gaming patterns of men, this can also be a decidedly social activity that should appeal to the classic psyche of the female gambler.

This may also hint at the evolution of the female gambler, with women arguably spending more on games of skill and strategy as they become more active in the accessible iGaming space.

Either way, the split between male and female gamblers is definitely interesting, with the differences between the sexes offering an insight into the individual outlooks of men and women.