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

Overall experience of games and gaming machines play

Three in ten (30 percent) young people had experienced play on arcade gaming machines, in the last 12 months. This proportion was highest amongst those aged 11 to 13 years old (33 percent), while it was 28 percent for those aged 14 to 16 years old and lowest for those aged 17 years old (25 percent). Differences were also evident across ethnicity with young people from white ethnic groups more likely to have played arcade games in the last 12 months, than young people from ethnic minority backgrounds (32 percent, compared to 24 percent).

Experience of playing on fruit or slot machines was lower. Just 6 percent of young people did so in the last 12 months.

There has been a 5 percentage point decrease in the proportion of young people who had experienced play on arcade gaming machines since 2022 (35 percent in 2022). While young people of white ethnic groups remain more likely to have played arcade games in the last 12 months than other ethnic groups, there has been a decrease in this figure (38 percent in 2022).

There has been no change in the experience of playing on fruit and slot machines in comparison to 2022. Again, it should be noted that the 2022 sample did not include year 12 pupils or independent schools, so any differences are indicative only.

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Young people’s active involvement in games and gaming machines Next section
Who is with young people when they play gaming machines

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Last updated: 16 November 2023

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