Report

Young People and Gambling 2023

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

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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

Following gambling companies on social media

A minority of young people (15 percent) said that they followed gambling companies on social media websites, typically using YouTube (10 percent), followed by TikTok (9 percent) and Instagram (7 percent).

Figure 32: Exposure to gambling on social media

Figure 32 information

GC_SOCIALMED. Do you follow any gambling companies on any of the following social media or streaming platforms?
Base: All participants answering (2,650).
Note: This is a multiple response question, so the responses shown will not add up to 100 percent.

Figure 32: Exposure to gambling on social media.

Response	Percentage who have seen (multiple response question, therefore answers do not sum to 100 percent)
Yes, on YouTube	10%
Yes, on TikTok	9%
Yes, on Instagram	7%
Yes, on Snapchat	5%
Yes, on Facebook	4%
Yes, on Twitter	4%
Yes, on Twitch	4%
No, I don’t follow any gambling on social media and/or streaming platforms	68%
No, I don’t use social media and/or streaming platforms	3%
Don’t know/can’t remember	13%

In line with differences in rates of gambling, boys were more likely than girls to follow gambling companies on social media (18 percent, compared with 12 percent). This is consistent with the finding that boys were more likely than girls to have seen adverts on social media.

Young people who had spent their own money on gambling in the last 7 days and 13 year olds were more likely to follow gambling companies on social media or streaming platforms (28 percent and 19 percent, respectively, compared with the overall figure of 15 percent). 17 year olds were less likely to follow any gambling companies on social media and/or streaming platforms, compared to 11 to 13 year olds and 14 to 16 year olds (73 percent, compared to 64 percent and 71 percent, respectively).

The amount of young people who followed gambling companies on social media has increased by 2 percentage points in comparison to 2022 (13 percent). Boys are also 2 percentage points more likely to follow these pages in comparison to 2022 (16 percent).

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Whether ever prompted to gamble by adverts and promotions

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Last updated: 16 November 2023

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