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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.

Published
16 November 2023

Last updated
16 November 2023 - Changes

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Contents

Overall gambling experience in the last 12 months

The most popular gambling activity in the past 12 months that young people have experienced was arcade gaming machines (for example, penny pusher or claw grab machine), mentioned by three in ten (30 percent) young people, followed by placing a bet for money between friends or family, at 15 percent. Just under one in ten (7 percent) of young people had experienced gambling by playing cards for money in the same time period or by playing bingo somewhere other than a bingo club.

Young people were more likely to experience gambling in a regulated environment (33 percent), than playing unregulated forms of gambling (22 percent), largely due to the high proportion who reported playing arcade gaming machines. When excluding those who reported playing arcade gaming machines, 16 percent of young people experienced gambling in a regulated environment.

Figure 4 illustrates the proportion of young people who have experience of gambling over the last 12 months, listing the ten most common types of activity, and the variations between experience and active involvement (that is, the activities young people spent their own money on).

The biggest disparity between activities young people have experienced and those they have spent money on in the last 12 month is for arcade gaming machines. Three in ten (30 percent) report experience of this in the last 12 months but this drops to two in ten (19 percent) for those who have spent their own money on this activity.

Similarly, experience of playing bingo somewhere other than a bingo club is higher (7 percent) than active involvement; 1 percent reported spending their own money which could indicate that young people tend to play bingo for fun, rather than for money, or that they may be spending someone else’s money to play. When it comes to playing cards for money, however, whilst a relatively small proportion of young people are taking part in this activity (7 percent), a similar proportion are spending their own money when they do so (5 percent).

Gambling on regulated forms of gambling has seen a 5 percentage point decrease from 38 to 33 percent since 2022, while unregulated environments have seen an 8 percentage point decrease from 30 percent in 2022 to 22 percent in 2023. The disparity between activities young people engage in and those that they have spent their own money on is reflective of the trends of 2022, there has however been a 5 percentage point decrease in young people with experience playing arcade games (35 percent in 2022 to 30 percent in 2023).

Figure 4: Activities that are tried versus those that money is spent on – top ten activities experienced in the last 12 months, compared with active involvement

A bar chart showing the top ten most common gambling activities among young people in the past 12 months. For each activity there are two bars. One bar represents the percentage of the most common gambling activities in the past 12 months, another bar represents most common gambling activities spent money on in the past 12 months. Data from the chart is provided within the following table.

Figure 4 information

Column 1 of data: GAMSPENDWHEN. When did you last do [this activity or these activities]? Was it in the last 12 months?
Column 2 of data: GAMSPEND4 And when did you last spend money on [this activity or these activities]? In the last 12 months.
Base: All 11 to 17 year olds answering (3,453).
Note: This is a multiple response question, therefore answers do not sum to 100 percent.

Figure 4: Activities that are tried versus those that money is spent on – top ten activities experienced in the last 12 months, compared with active involvement
Experience of Gambling (multiple response question, therefore answers do not sum to 100 percent) Active Involvement (multiple response question, therefore answers do not sum to 100 percent) Active Involvement (multiple response question, therefore answers do not sum to 100 percent)
Played arcade gaming machines 30% 19%
Placed a bet for money between friends or family 15% 11%
Played cards for money 7% 5%
Played bingo at somewhere other than a bingo club 7% 1%
National Lottery scratchcards 6% 1%
Played fruit or slot machines 6% 3%
Placed a bet on a betting website and/or app 2% 1%
Placed a bet at a betting shop or bookies 2% 1%
National Lottery draw 2% 1%
Played bingo online 2% 0%
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Variations in gambling experience
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