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

Summary

This section reviews active involvement in and experience with games and gaming machines in the last 12 months. Highlighting who young people are with, the most popular forms of gaming machine and experience of play in adults-only areas of venues such as holiday parks and arcades.

Throughout this section we make comparisons to 2022 data. However, it should be noted that while the 2023 sample included year 12 pupils and independent schools, these were not included in the 2022 sample and therefore any differences between the two years are indicative only.

Arcade gaming machines, such as penny pushers or claw grab machines, continue to be the most common type of gambling activity for young people. One in five (19 percent) 11 to 17 year olds spent their own money on playing arcade gaming machines in the last 12 months. A further 3 percent had spent their own money on playing fruit or slot machines, at an arcade, pub, or social club, over the same period.

To put this in context, four in ten (40 percent) 11 to 17 year olds have experienced gambling activities in the last 12 months, with three in ten (30 percent) playing on arcade gaming machines.

Young people were typically with someone when they played on arcade gaming machines (90 percent) or fruit and slot machines (82 percent), and most (79 percent) had no experience of playing on arcade gaming machines in an adults-only area in an amusement arcade or holiday park, or somewhere with a sign or sticker saying 18 years old or over.

Next section
Young people’s active involvement in games and gaming machines

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Last updated: 16 November 2023

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