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

Young people's active involvement in gambling

Three in ten (31 percent) 11 to 16 year-olds spent their own money (for example pocket money, birthday money or money they earned themselves) on gambling activities in the 12 months prior to taking part in the survey.

Young people were most likely to have spent their own money on arcade games such as penny pusher or claw grab machines (22 percent) or bet for money between friends or family (15 percent), than other gambling activities, as shown as follows in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Young people’s active involvement in gambling – top ten gambling activities young people spent their own money on

Figure 1 information

GAMSPEND4. And when did you last spend money on this activity and/or these activities? Was it …?
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 overall figure and for the top ten gambling activities only.

Figure 1: Young people’s active involvement in gambling – top ten gambling activities young people spent their own money on

Top ten gambling activities young people spent their own money on	Percentage (multiple response question, therefore answers do not sum to 100 percent)
Spent money on any gambling activity in last 12 months	31%
Played arcade gaming machines	22%
Placed a bet for money between friends or family	15%
Played cards for money	5%
Played fruit or slot machines	3%
Played bingo at somewhere other than a bingo club	2%
Placed a bet on esports	2%
National Lottery Scratchcards	1%
Placed a bet on a betting website and/or app	1%
Played casino games online	1%
National Lottery online instant win games	1%

Young people were more likely to spend their own money on regulated forms of gambling (23 percent), than unregulated forms of gambling (18 percent) in the last 12 months. The figure for regulated forms of gambling includes machines in premises that are not regulated by the Gambling Commission but have a permit from the local council, while the unregulated figure includes bingo play in premises where bingo is licensed, requires permits and where no permission is required (for further information on terms used throughout this report and their definitions see the Definitions section.).

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Variations in active involvement in gambling

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Last updated: 9 November 2022

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