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

Document actions
Print or save (opens in new tab)

Contents

• Young People and Gambling 2023: Official statistics

---

• 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

Variations in gambling experience

Looking at the different gambling activities, across most activities there were few notable differences for age and gender, except for the proportion of 11 to 13 year olds who were more likely to report experience of arcade games such as penny pushers or claw grab machines than young people aged 14 to 16 years old and 17 year olds (33 percent, compared to 28 percent and 25 percent, respectively).

Those who had seen family members gamble were more likely to have experienced most forms of gambling activities in the last 12 months, compared to young people who had not seen their family gamble. This mirrors the rates for active involvement in gambling in the last 12 months; with the differences most notable for activities where family members would be present such as placing a bet with friends or family (28 percent, compared with 13 percent of those who had not seen family members gamble).

Differences by ethnicity are only notable in the higher rates of experience of arcade gaming machines: 32 percent of white 11 to 17 year olds, compared with 24 percent of young people from black and ethnic minority groups. The activity of placing a bet for money between friends and family is also more prevalent amongst young people who define their ethnicity as white (16 percent) than young people from black and ethnic minority backgrounds (12 percent).

Reflecting on the different types of gambling activities young people engaged with in 2022, there has been a 6 percentage point decrease in those playing arcade games for 14 to 16 year olds (34 percent in 2022).

The disparity between ethnic groups of experience of arcade games is reflective of the trends of 2022, there has however been a decrease in prevalence for those from white ethnic groups (6 percentage point decrease from 38 percent).

Previous section
Overall gambling experience in the last 12 months

---

Last updated: 16 November 2023

Show updates to this content

No changes to show.