A survey of 7,756 people done for the Gambling Commission has concluded that three-quarters of adults living in the UK engaged in gambling last year, levels not seen since the late 1990s.

The regulator has also suggested the proportion of “problem gamblers” has also increased suggesting that 451,000 people have gambling related problems.

The analysis, entitled The British Gambling Prevalence Survey, was drawn up by experts at the National Centre for Social Research.

The report shows that 73 percent of people in the UK gambled last year which is an increase of 10 percent on the level in the last report in 2007.

The majority of reasons given for gambling included “because it’s fun” and there is a “chance of winning big money”.

Those in the UK gambled in a wide range of ways, including bingo, poker, casinos, lottery, horse racing, sports betting. Surprisingly the analysts identified that still only a small proportion of gaming occurred online.

The National Lottery continues to be the most common form of gambling with nearly 60 percent of adults in the UK buying a ticket last year. In contrast, football pools have declined significantly with just 4 percent of adults taking part in 2010 compared to 9 percent in 1999.

In order to consider the number of people that have problem gambling habits the statisticians considered two different and complex systems to help.

They also looked at a variety of behaviours ranging from "chasing losses" - making more bets in a desperate attempt to win back money already lost, all the way up to robbery to fund a gambling habit.

Brian Pomeroy, the chairman of the Gambling Commission added that a "small but probably growing" proportion of the UK population have serious problems with their gambling.

He said it reinforced the commission's determination to regulate gambling to "minimise the risk to those individuals and to ensure that the majority of people can continue to gamble safely". This latest report also provides evidence for the need to regulate online gambling, something which industry experts now believed will begin before the next General Election.

As the Gambling Commission only regulates gambling activities within the UK, online gambling sites not based in the UK enjoy a free for all and it is no surprise therefore the number of problem gamblers that are associated with these non regulated sites.

The Salvation Army, which has lobbied against the gambling industry in recent years, is calling for the government to restrain the industry.

According to a spokesman, there were now too many problem gamblers in the country and British society was in danger of being "de-sensitised to the problems that gambling can bring."

If you or anyone that you know has problems with gambling contact GamCare for support and advice.