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.

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Published
16 November 2023

Last updated
16 November 2023 - Changes

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Contents

• Young People and Gambling 2023: Official statistics

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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

Young people’s active involvement in games and gaming machines

One in five (19 percent) young people had spent their own money on playing arcade gaming machines such as penny pushers or claw grab machines in the last 12 months, the most popular gambling activity to be involved in. This is more prevalent amongst young people from white ethnic groups (21 percent) than young people from black or other ethnic backgrounds (13 percent).

In the same time period, 3 percent of young people had spent their own money on playing fruit or slot machines and less than 1 percent had spent their own money playing gambling machines in a betting shop.

While there has been a 3 percentage point decrease in the amount of young people spending their own money on playing arcade games such as penny pushers or claw grab games in comparison to 2022, it remains the most popular gambling activity for young people to be involved in. There has also been a decrease in prevalence of young people from white ethnic groups spending money on arcade gaming machines in comparison to 2022 (25 percent), they still however remain more likely than respondents from black and other ethnic groups to engage in this activity.

The amount of young people who had spent their own money on playing fruit or slot machines and had spent their own money playing gambling machines in a betting shop remains unchanged in comparison to 2022 (3 percent and less than 1 percent respectively).

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Overall experience of games and gaming machines play

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Last updated: 16 November 2023

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