I've only heard it in a gambling context which is why I was confused. I was briefly on a UK gambling platform and they referred to themselves as punters.

interesting, so when a fellow is taken up by the cops, and he says "thers no punt, im telling you truth", is that unfamiliar?

i have a lot of different nationalities partaking of my wilderness lodge, and a lot of the younger english ones use punt/play/burn/scam as equivalent.

i can see how they could merge, considering a colloquial "punt" [rugby/footall] as a maneuver with adverse risk.