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.
Contents
- Executive summary
- 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
- List of gambling activities and definitions
The impact of gambling on spending
Figure 8: The impact of gambling on spending
Young people who actively gambled in the last 12 months were asked if their own gambling had stopped them buying things that they wanted or, conversely, helped them to buy things that they needed.
Reflecting the perceived impact on households of family members gambling, as discussed in the next section, young people were most likely to highlight that gambling had helped them to buy things that they needed either all of the time, often or sometimes (10 percent). They were less likely to say that their own gambling stopped them from buying things that they wanted (5 percent).
Figure 8 information
GC_GAMBSTBUY GC_GAMBHPBUY. Thinking about the last 12 months, how often, if at all, has your own gambling led to any of the following things?
Base: All 11 to 17 year olds answering who have spent their own money gambling in the last 12 months 'Stopped you from buying things you have want' (850). 'Helped you buy things you have needed' (850).
| The impact of gambling on spending | Percentage who never | Percentage who rarely | Percentage who sometimes | Percentage who often | Percentage who all the time | Percentage who don't know |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Helped you buy things you have needed | 82% | 5% | 5% | 2% | 3% | 4% |
| Stopped you from buying things you have wanted | 89% | 3% | 2% | 1% | 2% | 3% |
Those in the ‘at risk’ group were more likely than ‘non-problem’ gamblers to say that their own gambling stopped them from buying things that they wanted (24 percent compared to 2 percent) and that gambling had helped them to buy the things that they needed (36 percent compared to 7 percent).
Girls were more likely than boys to say that gambling had never helped them to buy the things that they needed (86 percent compared to 78 percent). This pattern was not seen last year. This is because, while the proportion for boys has remained constant, for girls the proportion has increased (from 80 percent in 2022).
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The impact of gambling on schoolwork
Last updated: 16 November 2023
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