Report

Young People and Gambling 2023

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

Contents

• Young People and Gambling 2023

---

• 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

Setting gambling in the context of other activities

Young people were also asked about the types of activities they most like to do in their spare time. When asked to indicate the three activities they like to do most, listening to music (40 percent) and meeting up with friends (39 percent) were most frequently mentioned.

However, the use of devices shapes the way in which many young people spend their free time, with three in ten (30 percent) playing games on their phone, iPad, laptop or on a console. For boys it is the most popular activity, with 47 percent playing games on devices in their spare time, compared with just 12 percent of girls. The youngest group in the survey, 11 to 13 year olds, are more likely to report spending time on playing games on devices (33 percent, compared with 30 percent overall).

The most popular activity mentioned by girls was listening to music (48 percent, compared with 31 percent of boys). Girls were also more likely to report spending time on social media than boys (32 percent, compared with 21 percent of boys). Overall, over a quarter of young people (26 percent) felt that spending time on social media was the activity that they liked to do most in their free time.

Spending time with the family (25 percent), taking part in team sports (21 percent) and chatting on the phone with friends (19 percent) were other activities which made it into the list of top ten popular activities, as shown in Figure 22.

Just 2 percent of young people reported spending time watching others play esports online, with boys being more likely to take part in this activity (3 percent). While 1 percent of young people reported spending time taking part in fantasy football leagues, again with boys being more likely to take part in this activity (2 percent).

Figure 22: In your spare time, what are the things that you like to do most - Top ten responses

Figure 22 information

GC_SPARE. In your spare time, what are the things that you like to do most?
Base: All 11 to 17 year olds answering (3,442)
Note: Multiple response question so the percentages in the chart and table do not sum to 100 percent

Figure 22: Participation in risk-taking behaviours in past 12 months (active involvement).

Spare time activities – top ten responses	Percentage (multiple response question, answers do not sum to 100 percent)
Listening to music	40%
Meeting up with friends	39%
Playing games on my phone, iPad, laptop or console	30%
Spending time on social media	26%
Spending time with family	25%
Taking part in team sports	21%
Chatting on the phone with friends	19%
Exercising and/or keeping fit	18%
Shopping	13%
Watching programmes on TV and/or streaming services	13%

Previous section
Setting gambling in the context of other risk-taking behaviours Next section
Reasons why young people gamble

---

Last updated: 16 November 2023

Show updates to this content

No changes to show.