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.

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Published
7 November 2024

Last updated
7 November 2024 - Changes

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Contents

• Young People and Gambling 2024: 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
  • 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
• • Applying the DSM-IV-MR-J youth adapted problem gambling screen
  • Research design
  • Sample profile
• List of gambling activities and definitions
• • List of gambling activities
  • Definitions

Summary

This section provides an overview of the motivations behind young people's experience of gambling activities, as well as the reasons for abstaining from such activities. Additionally, this section will look at young people’s self-reported levels of feeling informed about gambling.

Findings are compared with previous years of the survey to identify trends. Statistically significant differences are highlighted across the years 2022 to 2024, though the 2022 sample did not include year 12 pupils or independent schools and so comparisons with this year are indicative only. Tables and analysis are only included where significant differences between 2024 and 2022 or 2024 and 2023 were identified.

The main reason young people experience and spend their own money on gambling activities is because they believe it to be fun (80 percent), a trend consistent across recent years (2024, 2023 and 2022). The desire to win money also motivates young people, with over a third (37 percent) indicating they experience gambling activities because they feel they have a good chance of winning or because they want to win money (34 percent).

In contrast, young people who do not experience gambling activities tend not to be interested in these activities (36 percent) or acknowledge that it is illegal to do so based on their age (36 percent).

About 4 out of 5 young people (82 percent) feel well informed about the risks of gambling, with a smaller proportion, 2 out of 3 (66 percent) stating they have had conversations with other people about the potential problems associated with gambling.

The proportion of young people feeling well informed increased from 70 percent in 2022 to 81 percent in 2024. However, the proportion of those who felt uninformed also rose from 8 percent in 2022 to 10 percent in 2024. Additionally, the proportion of young people reporting having had people speak to them about gambling risks increased from 50 percent in 2022 to 66 percent in 2024.

Next section
Reasons why young people gamble

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Last updated: 7 November 2024

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