Report

Young People and Gambling 2023: Official statistics

Gambling Commission report produced by Ipsos on young people and their gambling behaviour, attitudes and awareness in 2023.

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Published
16 November 2023

Last updated
16 November 2023 - Changes

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Contents

• Young People and Gambling 2023: 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
  • Awareness and use of virtual money or tokens to bet on sports matches
• 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 do not 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

Feeling informed about gambling

Most young people (70 percent) agreed that they were well informed about the risks of gambling, with boys (72 percent) being more likely than girls (67 percent) to feel well informed.

Just over half (54 percent) of 11 to 17 year olds reported that someone had spoken to them about the potential problems of gambling. Boys (57 percent) were more likely to report that they had been spoken to about the potential problems, than girls (52 percent), which is consistent with the finding about feeling better informed about gambling risks.

Young people who had experience of gambling in the last 12 months were more likely to agree that someone had spoken to them about the potential problems that gambling can lead to than young people overall (58 percent, compared with 54 percent) and felt more informed (74 percent, compared with 70 percent).

No significant differences were highlighted by age or ethnicity.

The proportion of 11 to 17 year olds who reported that someone had spoken to them about the potential problems of gambling has increased by 4 percentage points since 2022 (50 percent in 2022). There has been a significant increase in girls who have been spoken to about the potential problems of gambling (7 percentage points increase from 45 percent) and 3 percentage points increase in boys (54 percent).

Figure 27: Feeling informed about gambling

Figure 27 information

GC_ATTSPOKEN. GC_ATTINF. Thinking about gambling for money, how strongly do you agree or disagree with the statements below?
Base: All participants answering 'I feel well informed about the risks of gambling' (2,667). 'People have spoken to me about the potential problems that gambling can lead to' (2,655).

Figure 27: Feeling informed about gambling.

Feeling informed about gambling	Percentage who strongly agree	Percentage who agree	Percentage who neither agree or disagree	Percentage who disagree	Percentage who strongly disagree	Percentage who don't know
I feel well informed about the risks of gambling	31%	39%	11%	5%	2%	13%
People have spoken to me about the potential problems that gambling can lead to	21%	33%	12%	11%	6%	18%

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Young people's views on gambling Next section
Being stopped from gambling

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Last updated: 16 November 2023

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