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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.

Published
10 November 2022

Last updated
9 November 2022 - Changes

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Contents

Why young people don’t gamble

A lack of interest in gambling is the most common reason cited by young people for never spending their own money on it (39 percent).

However, a similar proportion did not participate in gambling activities because it is illegal or thought they were too young (37 percent). This was followed by young people not wanting to play with real money and/or they would rather play with free games (25 percent), not being allowed to gamble by their parents (24 percent) and because it may lead to future problems (22 percent).

Figure 23: Reasons for not gambling - Top Ten responses (plus 'Other' and 'Don't know')

A bar chart showing the top twelve reasons for not gambling. Data from the chart is provided within the following table.

Figure 23 information

GC_NEVER. You said that you have never gambled or never spent your own money on gambling. Why is that?
Base: All 11 to 16 year olds answering who have never spent their own money on gambling (1346).
Note: This is a multiple response question, so the responses shown will not add up to 100 percent.

Figure 23: Reasons for not gambling - Top Ten responses (plus 'Other' and 'Don't know'.
Reasons for not gambling Percentage (multiple response question, therefore answers do not sum to 100 percent)
It’s not something I’m interested in 39%
It’s illegal and/or I’m too young to do this 37%
I don’t want to play with real money and/or I would rather play free games 25%
My parents would not want me to and/or allow me to 24%
Because it might lead to future problems 22%
Because I will lose more than I will win 21%
I don’t agree with gambling and/or it is not right 21%
Because I am not likely to win money 19%
I don’t know enough about these gambling games 11%
It is against my religion 10%
Other 2%
Don't know 9%

There were gender differences with girls (43 percent) more likely than boys (35 percent) to cite gambling not being an activity that they were interested in as a reason why they did not gamble. Boys (25 percent) were more likely than girls (19 percent) not to gamble because it may lead to future problems.

There were also age differences. 11 to 13 year olds were more likely to mention that their parents do not allow them to gamble than 14 to 16 year olds (29 percent compared with 19 percent), and were more likely to state that they did not agree with gambling than 14 to 16 year olds (26 percent compared with 17 percent).

Young people from ethnic minority groups were more likely than those who are white to cite reasons such as parents’ objection (32 percent compared with 21 percent), not agreeing with gambling (32 percent compared with 16 percent) and gambling being against their religion (29 percent compared with 1 percent).

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Who young people were with when they gambled
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