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.

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Published
10 November 2022

Last updated
9 November 2022 - Changes

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Contents

• Young People and Gambling 2022: Official statistics

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• Executive summary
• • Introduction
  • Headline statistics
  • Presentation and interpretation of data
  • Acknowledgements
• Young people’s active involvement in gambling
• • Summary
  • Young people's active involvement in gambling
  • Variations in active involvement in gambling
  • Variations in active involvement in types of gambling activities
  • Prevalence of non-problem, at risk or problem gambling
  • Problem gambling by gender
  • Problem gambling by age
  • Problem gambling by ethnicity
• Experience of gambling
• • Summary
  • Overall gambling experience
  • Overall gambling experience in the last 12 months
  • Variations in gambling experience
• The Impact of gambling on young people
• • Summary
  • How gambling impacts on relations with friends and family
  • How gambling makes young people feel
  • The impact of gambling on sleep
  • The impact of gambling on spending
  • The impact of gambling on schoolwork
  • Experience and impact of family members’ gambling
• Online gambling
• • Summary
  • Young people’s active involvement in online gambling
  • Overall experience of online gambling
  • Online gambling using parent's or guardian's accounts
  • Awareness and use of in-game items in video games
• National Lottery play
• • Summary
  • Young people’s active involvement with lottery products
  • Wider experience of lottery games
  • Buying a National Lottery draw ticket or scratchcard
  • Who young people are with when playing a National Lottery product?
• Games and gaming machines
• • Summary
  • Young people’s active involvement in games and gaming machines
  • Overall experience of games and gaming machines play
  • Who is with young people when they play gaming machines?
  • Types of gaming machines
  • Play in an adults-only area
• The Context for gambling participation
• • Summary
  • Setting gambling in the context of other risk-taking behaviours
  • Setting gambling in the context of other activities
  • Reasons why young people gamble
  • Why young people don’t gamble
  • Who young people were with when they gambled
• Attitudes towards and exposure to gambling
• • Summary
  • Young people’s views on gambling
  • Feeling informed about gambling
  • Being stopped from gambling
  • Young people’s exposure to gambling adverts and promotions and frequency of exposure
  • Content of gambling adverts and promotions seen
  • Whether ever prompted to gamble by adverts and promotions
  • Following gambling companies on social media
• Appendices
• • Applying the DSM-IV-MR-J problem gambler screen
  • Research design
  • Sample profile
• List of gambling activities and definitions
• • List of gambling activities
  • Definitions

Young people’s views on gambling

Young people were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with statements about gambling and were provided with a prompted list to remind them of the activities included in the definition of ‘gambling’ for the purposes of the survey.

Most young people (64 percent) felt that gambling was dangerous, with boys (66 percent) more likely than girls (60 percent) to agree. Young people who had not seen family members gamble were more likely to feel that it was dangerous (70 percent), than those who had seen family members gamble (60 percent), suggesting that exposure to gambling removes an element of danger associated with the unknown.

Only a minority of 11 to 16 year olds appeared to support young people being able to gamble. Around one in ten agreed that it is okay for people their age to gamble to see what it’s like (12 percent) and that most people their age gambled (8 percent). Even fewer young people agreed that it was okay for someone their age to gamble once a week (6 percent).

Figure 25: Young people’s views on gambling

Figure 25 information

GC_ATTMOST GC_ATTDANG GC_ATTOKONCE GC_ATTOKTRY. Thinking about gambling for money, how strongly do you agree or disagree with the statements below?
Base: All 11 to 16 year olds answering 'Most people my age gamble' (2,204). 'Gambling is dangerous' (2,211). 'I feel well informed about the risks of gambling' (2,203). 'It is OK for someone my age to try to gamble to see what it’s like' (2,206). 'It is OK for someone my age to gamble once a week' (2,204). 'People have spoken to me about the potential problems that gambling can lead to' (2,193).
Note: Where percentages for a question do not add up to 100 percent, this is due to computer rounding.

Figure 25: Young people’s views on gambling.

Views	Percentage who strongly agree	Percentage who agree	Percentage who neither agree or disagree	Percentage who disagree	Percentage who strongly disagree	Percentage who don't know
Gambling is dangerous	26%	38%	18%	5%	2%	12%
It is OK for someone my age to try to gamble to see what it’s like	3%	10%	26%	28%	19%	14%
Most people my age gamble	3%	5%	16%	34%	18%	24%
It is OK for someone my age to gamble once a week	2%	4%	15%	36%	29%	15%

Young people with experience of gambling with their own money in the seven days leading up to the survey were, perhaps unsurprisingly:

• more likely to agree that most people their age gamble (15 percent compared with 8 percent overall)
• accept that it is okay for someone their age to gamble too see what it is like (29 percent compared with 12 percent overall)
• to gamble once a week (14 percent compared with 6 percent overall).

Acceptance of gambling also increases with age; 20 percent of 16 year olds agree that it is okay for someone their age to try gambling, compared with 10 percent of 11 year olds.

Young people who have observed family members gambling were more likely to have felt that most people their age gamble (10 percent compared with 6 percent of those who have not seen family members gamble) and they were more likely to agree that it is okay to try gambling to see what it is like (20 percent compared with 9 percent of those who have not seen anyone in their family gamble).

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Feeling informed about gambling

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Last updated: 9 November 2022

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