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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.

Contents


Summary

This section focuses on online gambling, examining in more detail active involvement and experience over the last 12 months, as well as awareness of evolving forms of online gambling such as eSports and in-game items.

Summary

The proportion of 11 to 16 year olds who were actively involved in online gambling in the last 12 months is low; the most common activity was betting on eSports (2 percent), with 1 percent spending their own money on National Lottery online instant win games, betting on a website or apps, or casino games online and less than 1 percent spending money on online bingo.

Looking at the wider picture of gambling experience, only a minority of young people took part in any form of online gambling in the last 12 months. When they did so it was most commonly betting on eSports (3 percent) or placing a bet on a website or an app (3 percent).

Overall, three in five (60 percent) young people had heard of in-game items when playing video games and half (50 percent) had heard of paying money to open loot boxes. Awareness of, and participation in, paying for in-game items and opening loot boxes was notably higher among boys, than girls, reflecting their overall higher levels of involvement in online gambling.

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Young people’s active involvement in online gambling
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