Data Shows Gambling Help Term Searches Grow in Regulated Markets

The global online gambling market continues to expand. According to Grand View Research, the sector generated approximately $88 billion in worldwide revenue in 2025 and is forecast to reach about $97.7 billion in 2026. The research firm projects an annual growth rate of roughly 11% through 2033, when the market could be worth more than $202 billion.

As regulated gambling becomes more widely available, researchers and regulators are paying closer attention to indicators of gambling-related harm. One such indicator is online search behavior. Evidence from several markets suggests that greater gambling availability can coincide with increased interest in information about gambling problems and support, although search data alone cannot establish that expanded access directly causes gambling disorder.

In Great Britain, for example, the Gambling Commission's 2025 Gambling Survey for Great Britain found that 59% of adults had gambled during the previous 12 months, while 47% had gambled during the previous four weeks. Among people who had gambled in the previous year, 3.4% said they had sought support because of their own gambling.

The Commission's 2024 survey also found that 2.7% of respondents scored eight or more on the Problem Gambling Severity Index, a level associated with problem gambling. These figures should be interpreted carefully, particularly because changes in survey methodology can make comparisons with older gambling-prevalence estimates difficult.

Similar concerns about gambling-related harm have emerged elsewhere. In Australia, a 2024 national prevalence study found that around 65% of adults had gambled during the previous year and that 15% of adults experienced some level of gambling-related risk or harm.

European gambling data also points to growing participation in regulated online services, although figures should not be confused with the number of individual gamblers. For example, European Gaming and Betting Association members reported 38.6 million customer accounts in 2024, an increase of 19% from the previous year. That figure relates only to participating EGBA operators and does not mean that the number of people gambling across the European Union rose by 19%.

Taken together, these statistics show why responsible-gambling safeguards remain important as gambling markets evolve. Centralized self-exclusion programs such as GAMSTOP in Great Britain, OASIS in Germany, and BetStop in Australia are examples of measures designed to help people restrict their access to gambling services.

In the United States, changing search behavior has also attracted attention. Research published by GamblingSites.com examined how Google Trends interest in gambling-related support terms changed between 2020 and 2025.

The US Case Study: A Detailed Look at Search Behavior Changes

The U.S. gambling market has expanded significantly since the Supreme Court's 2018 decision in Murphy v. NCAA, which struck down federal restrictions contained in the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act and allowed individual states to legalize sports betting.

Online casino regulation followed a different path. States were already able to authorize online casino gambling before the Murphy decision, with Delaware and New Jersey among the earliest markets to launch regulated online casino services. Today, a limited number of states permit full online casino gaming, while many more have legalized online sports betting.

Against this backdrop, GamblingSites.com published an analysis in 2026 examining ten gambling-related search terms using Google Trends data covering 2020 through 2025.

The study found that relative search interest increased for all of the terms it examined. According to its analysis, interest in "gambling hotline" rose by 357%, while "gambling help" increased by 191% and "gambling addiction" rose by 95%.

These percentages refer to changes in Google Trends' relative search-interest index rather than raw search volumes. They therefore show that certain terms became more prominent over time, but they do not reveal exactly how many people conducted the searches.

The study also found that the phrase "sports betting addiction" began registering measurable Google Trends interest after 2021. That development coincided with the continued expansion of regulated mobile sports betting across the United States.

It would be too strong, however, to conclude from these searches that every person using such terms had a gambling disorder or was seeking treatment. A search for "gambling hotline," for example, could be made by someone concerned about their own gambling, a friend or family member, a researcher, or somebody seeking general information.

More rigorous evidence for a connection between sports-betting expansion and increased gambling-related search activity comes from academic research.

A 2025 JAMA Internal Medicine study found that gambling-addiction-related searches in the United States were approximately 23% higher than expected following the Murphy v. NCAA decision. The researchers also found particularly pronounced increases in several states after online sportsbooks became available.

The study described these searches as indicators of potential help-seeking rather than direct measures of gambling disorder. Its findings therefore support an association between expanded sports-betting access and greater interest in gambling-related help, without proving that online betting alone caused each search or each case of gambling-related harm.

State-level patterns also vary. Gambling laws, advertising exposure, availability of retail casinos, population characteristics, public-health campaigns, and access to treatment resources can all affect how often people search for gambling-related support.

What Do These Findings Mean for Gamblers?

The findings underline the importance of making responsible-gambling information and support easy to find as regulated gambling becomes more accessible.

Many regulated gambling markets require or encourage operators to provide tools that can help customers manage their activity. Depending on the jurisdiction, these may include deposit limits, spending or loss limits, cooling-off periods, reality checks, time limits, and self-exclusion.

The exact protections vary considerably between markets, so players should check the rules and resources provided by their local regulator.

Self-exclusion is one of the stronger measures available to people who want to restrict their access to gambling. Depending on the jurisdiction, a self-exclusion program may block access to one operator or to multiple licensed gambling companies for a defined period.

These tools can be useful safeguards, but they should not be considered substitutes for professional assistance when gambling is causing financial, emotional, relationship, or other serious problems. People concerned about their gambling should use recognized local support services, healthcare providers, or resources recommended by their gambling regulator.

Research into search behavior can help illustrate how public interest in these resources changes over time. GamblingSites.com is a commercial gambling-information and review website, and its Google Trends analysis provides one example of how publicly available data can be used to examine changing interest in gambling-related support terms.

Its findings are most useful when treated as indicators rather than definitive measurements. Search trends cannot tell us precisely how many people have a gambling disorder, why any individual conducted a search, or whether someone subsequently sought treatment.

What they can show is that search interest in gambling-help terminology has increased substantially. As legal gambling markets continue to develop, ensuring that accurate information, responsible-gambling tools, and appropriate support services remain visible and accessible will be increasingly important.

By GamesAndCasino