Gambling is a normal part of day-to-day UK prison life, according to a report by Russell Webster, which examined the behaviour of 282 volunteers.

All participants were incarcerated at an unnamed Category B men’s prison, with a mixture of both convicted and on-remand prisoners for a range of offences.

A total of 45% of all participants reported gambling in prison, not too dissimilar to the 43% of un-incarcerated adults who gambled in the four weeks prior to the UKGC’s last gambling participation survey.

Overall, it was found that the majority of prisoners were not introduced to betting as a result of their imprisonment, with 66% stating that they had gambled in some way at some point in their life before their sentence.