Study: Gen X most likely to use credit cards for gambling

Generation X online gamblers are more likely to use credit cards than their millennial counterparts, who prefer debit cards, according to new research from payments provider PXP Financial.

The research found that – of a group surveyed at ICE London – more than 45% used debit cards as their primary payment method for online gaming and betting. This rose to 53% when the use of debit cards through e-wallets was included.

Millennials, those born between 1981 and 1996, are the most likely to use debit cards, with 49% using them as their primary payment form. Meanwhile, only 29% of members of generation X (people born between 1965 and 1980) did so.

Credit cards, meanwhile, were used by 59% of generation X, though PXP did not say how this number compared to millennials’ usage.

Among respondents at ICE London, PXP also found that the majority (55%) believe that the ban on credit cards in gambling in the UK, announced by the Gambling Commission in January, would have a negative effect on the industry. This ban will come into effect on 14 April.

Among generation X members surveyed, 67% said they felt the ban would have a negative effect.

Of those surveyed, 52% also said that millennials were the group who spent the most while gambling, though the largest cohort of members of generation X, at 33%, said it was their own generation that spends the most.

PXP also said that Generation Z – comprising people born from 1997 onwards –  is yet to have a major impact on the online payments industry, but believes that this will change over time.