Italy’s gambling advertising ban isn’t likely to reduce the nation’s number of problem gamblers, at least, if the findings of a new gambling participation survey are any indication.

On Thursday, Italy’s Istituto Superiore della Sanità (ISS) health agency released the results of a survey commissioned by Italy’s gambling regulator AAMS into the scope of the nation’s gambling activity. The survey queried over 12k adults, making it the largest such study ever conducted in the country.

The survey found that 18.4m Italians – around 36.4% of the population – gambled at least once in the past 12 months. That ranks Italy fifth among large European countries in terms of gambling participation, behind Spain (75.7%), the UK (63%), France (56.2%) and Germany (39%).

Of these 18.4m souls, around 13m are considered ‘social’ gamblers with no issues resulting from their activity. Around 2m are considered at ‘low risk’ of developing into problem gamblers, while a further 1.4m are considered at ‘moderate risk’. The remaining 1.5m are considered true problem gamblers, although only 13k individuals’ activity has been so extreme that they’ve sought professional help for their condition.