Report
Young People and Gambling 2024: Official statistics
Gambling Commission report produced by Ipsos on young people and their gambling behaviour, attitudes and awareness in 2024.
Contents
- Executive summary
- Young people’s active involvement in gambling
- Summary
- Definitions
- Young people's active involvement in gambling
- The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition – Multiple Response Juvenile (DSM-IV-MR-J) problem gambling screen
- The impacts of gambling on young people
- Summary
- The impact of gambling on relationships
- Young people’s feelings when gambling
- The impact of gambling on young people’s engagement with school and homework
- The impact of gambling on young people’s sleep
- The impact of gambling on spending
- Experience of ever seeing a family member gambling
- The impact of family members’ gambling on young people
- Wider experience of gambling
- Summary
- Wider experience and active involvement in gambling
- Experience of different gambling activities
- Who young people were with when they experienced gambling activities
- Being stopped from gambling for being too young
- Setting gambling in the context of other risk taking behaviours
- Games and gaming machines
- Summary
- Young people spending their own money on games and gaming machines
- Overall experience of playing games and gaming machines
- Who young people were with when they played gaming machines
- Types of gaming machine played
- Playing arcade machines in adults-only areas
- Online gambling
- Summary
- Young people’s active involvement in online gambling
- Overall experience of online gambling
- Online gambling using parents’ or guardians’ accounts
- Paying for and betting with in-game items in video games
- Methods of paying for in-game items and to open loot boxes
- Lotteries and lottery style games
- Summary
- Active involvement with lotteries and lottery style games
- Wider experience of lotteries and lottery style games
- Buying a National Lottery draw ticket or scratchcard
- Who young people were with when playing lotteries and lottery style games
- Attitudes towards gambling and reasons for gambling
- Summary
- Reasons why young people gamble
- Reasons why young people do not gamble
- Feeling informed about gambling
- Recall of gambling adverts and promotion
- Summary
- Recall of gambling advertising or promotions
- Frequency of seeing or hearing gambling adverts or promotions
- Perceived impact of gambling adverts on unplanned spending
- Engagement with gambling related content on social media and streaming platforms
- Appendices
- List of gambling activities and definitions
Reasons why young people do not gamble
About half of young people (48 percent) indicated that they do not gamble. We explored the reasons why they do not gamble in the survey.
Over a third of young people (36 percent) indicated that gambling is not something they are interested in, whilst another third (36 percent) did not gamble because it is illegal, or they thought they were too young. Almost a quarter of young people indicated that they did not want to play with real money and/or that they would rather play free games (23 percent) and that their parents would not want to them or allow them to gamble (22 percent). Figure 7.2 provides a more detailed look at the various reasons.
Figure 7.2: Reasons for not gambling
Figure 7.2 information
GC_NEVER: You said that you have never gambled or never spent your own money on gambling. Why is that?
Base: All participants (answering) who have never spent their own money on gambling (2,075).
Note: This is a multiple response questions, therefore answers do not sum to 100 percent.
| Reasons for not gambling | Percentage (multiple response question, therefore, answers do not sum to 100 percent) |
|---|---|
| It is not something I am interested in | 36% |
| It is illegal or I am too young to do this | 36% |
| I do not want to play with real money or I would rather play free games | 23% |
| My parents would not want to me or allow me to | 22% |
| I do not agree with gambling or it is not right | 20% |
| Because it might lead to future problems | 19% |
| Because I will lose more than I will win | 17% |
| Because I am not likely to win money | 16% |
| It is against my religion | 15% |
| I do not know enough about these gambling games | 10% |
| Other | 1% |
| Do not know | 9% |
| Prefer not to say | 26% |
More boys (18 percent) than girls (13 percent) indicated that they do not gamble since they are not likely to win money. Boys were also more likely to believe that gambling might lead to future problems than girls (21 percent compared to 16 percent). However, girls (41 percent) were more likely than boys (31 percent) to indicate that gambling is not something that they are interested in.
Several shifts were identified when looking at the reasons why young people have not gambled in 2024 compared to 2022 and 2023. When comparing 2024 to 2022, the proportion of young people indicating that they did not gamble because they would lose more than they would win decreased from 21 percent in 2022 to 17 percent in 2024. Similarly, the proportion of young people who said ‘not likely to win money’ decreased from 19 percent in 2022 to 16 percent in 2024. The proportion of young people stating that gambling is against their religion increased from 10 percent in 2022 to 15 percent in 2024.
Table 7.2: Reasons for not gambling in 2022, 2023 and 2024
Table 7.2 information
GC_NEVER: You said that you have never gambled or never spent your own money on gambling. Why is that?
Base: All participants (answering) who have never spent their own money on gambling 2022 (1,137), 2023 (1,674), 2024 (2,075).
Note: This is a multiple response questions, therefore answers do not sum to 100 percent.
| Reasons for not gambling | 2022 (percentage) (multiple response question, therefore, answers do not sum to 100 percent) |
2023 (percentage) (multiple response question, therefore, answers do not sum to 100 percent) |
2024 (percentage) (multiple response question, therefore, answers do not sum to 100 percent) |
Statistical differences 2024 compared to 2022 | Statistical differences 2024 compared to 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| It is not something I am interested in | 39% | 44% | 36% | No significant difference | Significant decrease |
| It is illegal or I am too young to do this | 37% | 37% | 36% | No significant difference | No significant difference |
| I do not want to play with real money or I would rather play free games | 25% | 27% | 23% | No significant difference | Significant decrease |
| My parents would not want to me or allow me to | 24% | 22% | 22% | No significant difference | No significant difference |
| I do not agree with gambling or it is not right | 21% | 20% | 20% | No significant difference | No significant difference |
| Because it might lead to future problems | 22% | 23% | 19% | No significant difference | Significant decrease |
| Because I will lose more than I will win | 21% | 24% | 17% | Significant decrease | Significant decrease |
| Because I am not likely to win money | 19% | 21% | 16% | Significant decrease | Significant decrease |
| It is against my religion | 10% | 8% | 15% | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| I do not know enough about these gambling games | 11% | 13% | 10% | No significant difference | Significant decrease |
| Other | 2% | 4% | 1% | Significant decrease | Significant decrease |
| Do not know | 9% | 11% | 9% | No significant difference | No significant difference |
| Prefer not to say | 7% | 36% | 26% | Significant increase | Significant decrease |
Reasons why young people gamble Next section
Feeling informed about gambling
Last updated: 7 November 2024
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