Report

Young People and Gambling 2022

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

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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

Headline statistics

Headline statistics

31 percent of 11 to 16 year olds spent their own money on gambling in the twelve months prior to taking part in the survey.

During that period, the most common types of gambling activity that young people spent their own money on were legal or did not feature age restricted products, namely:

• playing arcade gaming machines such as penny pusher or claw grab machines (22 percent)
• placing a bet for money between friends or family (15 percent)
• playing cards with friends or family for money (5 percent).

23 percent of young people were spending their own money on regulated forms of gambling.

The youth-adapted problem gambling screen (DSM-IV-MR-J) identified 0.9 percent of 11 to 16 year olds as problem gamblers, 2.4 percent as at risk gamblers and 27.3 percent as non-problem gamblers.

Most (78 percent) young people who spent their own money gambling in the last 12 months, did so because they regard it as a fun thing to do. Whilst one in five (21 percent) agree that gambling makes them feel happy, more (29 percent) disagreed that it made them happy and the same proportion (29 percent) were unsure either way.

Three in ten (28 percent) young people had seen family members they live with gamble, of which 7 percent indicated it had resulted in arguments or tension at home. However, one in ten (11 percent) said that gambling by a family member had helped to pay for things at home for example holidays, trips or clubs.

Previous section
Introduction Next section
Presentation and interpretation of data

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Last updated: 9 November 2022

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