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.

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Published
10 November 2022

Last updated
9 November 2022 - Changes

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Contents

• Young People and Gambling 2022: Official statistics

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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

How gambling makes young people feel

Young people who had spent their own money on gambling in the last 12 months were asked how it affected their happiness, and whether it ever made them feel sad or guilty.

For the majority, their experience of gambling does not lead to feelings of guilt or sadness; only 3 percent agreed with the statement ‘I feel sad when I gamble’ and only 5 percent agreed with the statement ‘I feel guilty when I gamble’. They are less clear on whether gambling makes them feel happy; one in five (21 percent) agree, but three in ten (29 percent) disagree and the same proportion (29 percent) are unsure either way.

Figure 6: How gambling makes young people feel

Figure 6 information

GC_EXPHAP GC_EXPGUIL GC_EXPSAD. Thinking about your experiences of gambling, how much do you agree or disagree with the following statements?
Base: All 11 to 16 year olds answering who have spent their own money gambling in the last 12 months 'I feel happy when I gamble' (690). 'I feel guilty when I gamble' (692). 'I feel sad when I gamble' (692).
Note: Where percentages for a question do not add up to 100 percent, this is due to computer rounding.

Figure 6: How gambling makes young people feel

Statement	Percentage who strongly agree	Percentage who agree	Percentage who neither agree nor disagree	Percentage who disagree	Percentage who strongly disagree	Percentage who don't know
I feel sad when I gamble	2%	1%	15%	28%	33%	20%
I feel guilty when I gamble	3%	2%	18%	26%	32%	20%
I feel happy when I gamble	3%	18%	29%	13%	15%	22%

Young people from black and ethnic minority groups were more likely than young people from white ethnic groups to agree that their active involvement in gambling makes them feel sad (7 percent compared with 2 percent) and guilty (9 percent compared with 4 percent).

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How gambling impacts on relations with friends and family Next section
The impact of gambling on sleep

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Last updated: 9 November 2022

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