Britain’s pensioners risk becoming a generation of gambling addicts after more than half a million turned to online betting during the pandemic.
Research shows 625,000 over-65s took up gambling online during lockdown
Some 13.5 per cent of Britons who bet online are now over the age of 65
In September 2019, that age group made up 8.7 per cent of online gamblers
The surge coincided with lockdown, when high street betting shops were closed
Professor Henrietta Bowden-Jones of the RCP said: “The pandemic has shaken our lives in so many ways and these data show that many more older people are gambling online than were before the start of the pandemic”