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
8 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

Headline statistics

Of young people, 27 percent spent their own money on gambling in the 12 months prior to taking part in the survey.

During that period, the most common types of gambling activity that young people spent their own money on were legal or did not feature age restricted products, namely:

• playing arcade gaming machines such as penny pusher or claw grab machines (20 percent)
• placing a bet for money between friends or family (11 percent)
• playing cards for money (5 percent).

The survey found 21 percent of young people were spending their own money on regulated forms of gambling (which includes some activities that are legal and played within licensed premises), and 15 percent on unregulated forms of gambling (gambling activities which fall outside the remit of the Gambling Commission).

When removing arcade gaming machines, which are legally accessible to young people, 6 percent spent their own money on regulated forms of gambling. This is an increase from 4 percent in 2023.

A total of 1.5 percent of young people scored 4 or more on the youth-adapted problem gambling screen (DSM-IV-MR-J), 1.9 percent scored 2 or 3, and 23.2 percent scored 0 or 1. The proportion of young people overall scoring 4 or more on the DSM-IV-MR-J has risen from 0.7 percent in 2023 to 1.5 percent in 2024.

Just over 1 in 10 (11 percent) said that their own gambling had led them to talk to their parents about how they felt while 9 percent said that gambling had made them feel uncomfortable around their friends (such as feeling embarrassed or feeling friends would not approve), at least sometimes.

A quarter of young people (26 percent) had seen family members they live with gamble, and of that 26 percent, 9 percent indicated that it had resulted in more arguments or tension at home.

Awareness of advertising and marketing has increased between 2023 and 2024 but remains in line with where it was in 2022.

Previous section
Introduction Next section
Presentation and interpretation of data

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Last updated: 8 November 2024

Show updates to this content

Clarification added to the percentage of children that indicated that gambling had resulted in more arguments or tension at home.