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Report

Young People and Gambling 2022

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

Awareness and use of in-game items in video games

Skins are one example of in-game items which can be won or bought within a video game to change the appearance of a character, avatar or weapon. On some websites, separate to the game itself, players can trade, bet on and sell their skins in exchange for cash. This is called skins gambling.

One commonly used method for players to acquire in-game items is through in-game payments to open loot boxes which contain an unknown quantity and value of in-game items. The use of features which include expenditure and chance has led to concern that loot boxes are akin to gambling.

The Gambling Commission’s view on skins gambling, loot boxes and related issues is as set out in the position paper published in March 2017 entitled 'Virtual currencies, eSports and social casino gaming – position paper' (PDF) (opens in a new tab)

Two in five (43 percent) young people were aware of, and had used, in-game items. Of these, 39 percent had paid for in-game items or mods (for example skins, clothes, weapons, players) either with money or virtual currency, and a quarter (24 percent) had paid to open loot boxes and/or packs and/or chests to get in-game items (for example skins, clothes, weapons, players).

As shown as follows in Figure 14, the more akin to gambling the use of in-game items gets the lower the levels of awareness and usage are, with only 2 percent of young people having personally bet with in-game items.

Overall, a further third (32 percent) were aware of in-game items but had never used them and 23 percent had never heard of them.

Figure 14: Awareness and use of in-game items

A bar chart showing young peoples' awareness and use of in-game items in the last 12 months. For each possible thing to do with in-game items there are three bars. One bar represents if young people were aware and used, one bar represents if young people were aware but never done, the other bar represents if young people were not aware of. Data from the chart is provided within the following table.

Figure 14 information

INGAMEAWARE. The following list shows some different things that it is possible to do with in-game items. Which, if any, of these have you heard about before today?
Base: All 11 to 16 year olds answering (2,299).
INGAMEUSED. Which, if any, of the following have you personally done?
Base: All 11 to 16 year olds answering who were aware of in-game items (1,424).
Note: This shows responses to two separate questions, with exclusions of Don’t know and Not stated response, so the total will not add up to 100 percent.

Figure 14: Awareness and use of in-game items.
Question statement Percentage who are aware of and have done this (results from two separate survey questions, therefore do not sum to 100 percent) Percentage who are aware of but have never done this (results from two separate survey questions, therefore do not sum to 100 percent) Percentage who are not aware of this (results from two separate survey questions, therefore do not sum to 100 percent)
Paying for in-game items or mods (for example skins, clothes, weapons, players) either with money or virtual currency 39% 15% 32%
Paying to open loot boxes and/or packs and/or chests to get in-game items (for example skins, clothes, weapons, players) either with money or virtual currency 24% 21% 43%
Betting with in-game items on websites outside of the game you are playing 2% 14% 80%

Boys were more likely to be aware of and used in-game items than girls, reflecting the fact that they are more likely to play video games and gamble online. Boys were more likely to:

  • have paid for in-game items or mods either with money or virtual currency than girls (52 percent compared with 24 percent)
  • have paid to open loot boxes and/or packs and/or chests to get in-game items than girls (37 percent compared with 11 percent)
  • have a bet with in-game items on websites outside of the game they are playing than girls (3 percent compared with 1 percent).

In terms of frequency, of those who had paid for in-game items or mods just under three in four (73 percent) did so in the last 12 months, with boys more likely to do so than girls (78 percent of boys paid for in-game items or mods compared with 64 percent of girls in the last 12 months).

Similarly, for those who had paid to open loot boxes 74 percent had done so in the last 12 months. Those who had seen their family members gamble were more likely (80 percent) to have paid to open loot boxes in last 12 months than average (74 percent).

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