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

List of gambling activities

The survey contained four questions which were designed to identify gambling experience and then establish rates of active involvement among young people during the past seven days, four weeks, 12 months and more than 12 months ago.

All young people were asked whether they had ever participated in any gambling activities shown on a list. For each activity they had ever participated in, they were then asked when they did so, whether they had spent their own money on it and when they last spent their own money.

The list of gambling activities which formed the basis of the gambling prevalence questions is shown in Table A.10.

Table A.10: List of gambling activities

1. National Lottery draw, for example Lotto, EuroMillions or Set for Life, either with a physical ticket or playing online.
2. National Lottery Scratchcards (not free Scratchcards).
3. National Lottery online instant win games.
4. Other Lotteries (for example The Health Lottery, People’s Postcode Lottery, or other smaller lotteries).
5. Played arcade gaming machines (for example penny pusher or claw grab machine).
6. Played fruit or slot machines (for example at an arcade, pub or social club).
7. Played gambling machines in a betting shop.
8. Played cards for money (for example with friends or family).
9. Played bingo at a bingo club.
10. Played bingo at somewhere other than a bingo club (for example social club, holiday park).
11. Played bingo online (for example Foxy Bingo, Gala Bingo or Tombola).
12. Placed a bet for money between friends or family.
13. Placed a bet on eSports (electronic sports that is, playing video games competitively) online.
14. Placed a bet at a betting shop or bookies (for example on football or horse racing).
15. Placed a bet on a betting website and/or app (for example on football or horse racing).
16. Played a game inside a casino.
17. Played casino games online (for example, online poker or online roulette for money).

Next section
Definitions

---

Last updated: 16 November 2023

Show updates to this content

No changes to show.