A recent study by Nielsen Media Research shows that the UK online casinos and gambling has surpassed social networking in popularity last year, Nielsen is a research firm that measures media audiences.

The researchers found that in the UK 3.2 million people visited an online casino gambling site in 2009, which is an increase of 40% on the results of the previous year. In the same year 2.2 million people visited Facebook or other social networking sites. And besides the figures of how many people have visited an online casino sites, the study also shows the typical clientele for online casinos.

The study found that nearly half of online gamblers lead a good life and earn at least € 34,219 a year. Women make up almost half of the online gamblers with 46 percent. Internet casinos are working to make gambling sites more woman-friendly. Niel Beston, from Nielsen said: “While the phenomenal growth in gambling sites over the last two years has been driven by men and women of all ages, it appears to be powered particularly by middle-aged men, the well-educated, and high-earning households.”