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
24 September 2024 - 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

Problem gambling by gender

Boys were more likely to be classified as problem gamblers than girls (0.9 percent compared to 0.1 percent ). The numbers of individuals who fall into the categories of ‘at risk gamblers’ and ‘problem gamblers’ are low (below our threshold for analysis of 50 or more cases). As such these results should be treated with caution.

In 2022 there was no significant difference between boys and girls. This change to a difference in 2023 is largely driven by the decrease in the proportion of girls classified as problem gamblers (to 0.1 percent from 0.9 percent) whereas the proportion of boys has not seen a significant difference between the two years.

Table 1: Types of gamblers by gender (last 12 months)

Table 1 information

The numbers of individuals who fall into the categories of ‘at risk gamblers’ and ‘problem gamblers’ are low (below our threshold for analysis of 50 or more cases). As such these results should be treated with caution.

Table 1: Types of gamblers by gender (last 12 months)

Gender	Total	Non-gambler		Non-problem gambler		At risk gambler		Problem gambler
	Base size	Percentage	Base size	Percentage	Base size	Percentage	Base size	Percentage	Base size
Boys	1593	75%	1228	21.6%	355	1.8%	29	0.9%	15
Girls	1660	74%	1196	23.9%	385	1.4%	22	0.1%	2

Previous section
Prevalence of non-problem, at risk or problem gambling Next section
Problem gambling by age

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Last updated: 24 September 2024

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