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Guidance

Guidance to licensing authorities

The Gambling Commission's guidance for licensing authorities.

Published
1 April 2021

Last updated
9 November 2022 - Changes

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Overall gambling experience in the last 12 months

Focusing on experience of gambling over the last 12 months, the most popular activity was arcade gaming machines (for example penny pusher or claw grab machine), mentioned by 35 percent of young people. One in five (21 percent) placed a bet for money between friends or family during the same period and around one in ten played cards for money (9 percent), bought a National Lottery scratchcard (8 percent) or played bingo at somewhere other than a bingo club, for example at a social club or holiday park (8 percent).

Young people were more likely to experience regulated forms of gambling (38 percent), than unregulated forms of gambling (30 percent) largely due to the high proportion who reported playing arcade gaming machines.

Figure 4 as follows illustrates the proportion of young people who have experience of gambling over the last 12 months, listing the ten most common types of activity, and the variations between experience and active involvement (the activities young people spent their own money on).

Notable differences are in arcade gaming machines play, with over a third (35 percent) of young people reporting experience of this in the last 12 months, but just 22 percent spent their own money on this activity. Similarly experience of playing National Lottery scratchcards is far higher (8 percent) than active involvement; only 1 percent reported spending their own money. There is also a gap in experience of playing bingo at somewhere other than a bingo club (8 percent), compared with spending their own money on this activity (2 percent), suggesting that young people tend to play bingo for fun, rather than for money.

Figure 4: Activities that are tried versus those that money is spent on – top ten activities experienced in the last 12 months, compared with active involvement

A bar chart showing the top ten most common gambling activities among young people in the past 12 months. For each activity, one bar represents the percentage of young people that have experienced the activity, another bar represents the percentage that have had active involvement and spent their own money on the activity. Data from the chart is provided within the following table.

Figure 4 information

GAMSPENDWHEN. When did you last do this activity and/or these activities? Was it in the last 12 months? GAMSPEND4. And when did you last spend money on this activity and/or these activities? In the last 12 months. Base: All 11 to 16 year olds answering (2,559).
Note: Responses in the table and chart do not add up to 100 percent, as the figures shown are for the top ten gambling activities only.

Figure 4: Activities that are tried versus those that money is spent on – top ten activities experienced in the last 12 months, compared with active involvement
Activity Percentage that have experienced the activity (answers do not sum to 100 percent as only the top ten responses shown) Percentage that have had active involvement (answers do not sum to 100 percent as only the top ten responses shown)
Played arcade gaming machines 35% 22%
Placed a bet for money between friends or family 21% 15%
Played cards for money 9% 5%
Played bingo at somewhere other than a bingo club 8% 2%
National Lottery Scratchcards 8% 1%
Played fruit or slot machines 6% 3%
Placed a bet on esports 3% 2%
Placed a bet on a betting website and/or app 3% 1%
National Lottery draw 3% 1%
Played casino games online 2% 1%
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