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Report

Young People and Gambling 2022: Official statistics

Gambling Commission report produced by Ipsos on young people and their gambling behaviour, attitudes and awareness in 2022.

Published
10 November 2022

Last updated
9 November 2022 - Changes

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Contents

Summary

This section of the report examines the impacts experienced by young people as a result of their own or someone else’s gambling. This is the first time the data has been collected following a pilot study on gambling-related harms among young people in 2019 (opens in new tab). We will continue to develop our use of this data to build a fuller understanding of the impact of gambling on young people, particularly the extent and severity of gambling-related harms that they may experience. This development work will include analysing the data for young people defined as at risk and problem gamblers, which has been excluded from the current report due to the low base sizes.

Summary

One in ten (10 percent) young people said that their own experience of gambling had led them to talk to their parents about how they felt, either sometimes, often, or all of the time. A similar proportion (7 percent) stated that it had made them feel uncomfortable around their friends.

For the vast majority, their experience of gambling does not lead to feelings of guilt or sadness. However, they are less clear on whether gambling makes them feel happy; one in five (21 percent) agree, but three in ten (29 percent) disagree and the same proportion (29 percent) are unsure either way.

Only a minority of young people who spent their own money on gambling said that it helped to buy the things that they wanted (12 percent), fewer still said that it stopped them buying the things that they wanted (5 percent). Just 3 percent stated that their own gambling made it hard for them to put effort into their schoolwork, homework, or personal studies.

Across the last 12 months, 2 percent of young people who were actively involved in gambling had lost sleep at night because gambling meant that they went to bed late or because they were worried. While 3 percent lost sleep because they were worried about a family member or someone that is responsible for them gambling.

Almost three in ten (28 percent) young people had ever seen the family members they lived with gamble. The most common impact being that it helped to pay for things or activities, for example holidays, trips or clubs (mentioned by 11 percent). However, around one in twenty of those who had seen family members gamble felt that at some point it had resulted in arguments or tension at home (7 percent) or that it had impacted on the time parents and/or guardians had to spend with them (6 percent). A smaller proportion of those who had seen family members gamble stated that it had impacted on the availability of food at home or money on their school canteen card and/or account (3 percent).

Next section
How gambling impacts on relations with friends and family
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