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

Overall experience of playing games and gaming machines

When broadening the scope to look at those young people who have experience of playing games and gaming machines, not just those who have spent their own money on these activities, then arcade gaming machines, such as penny pushers or claw grab machines, continue to be the most common type of gambling activity amongst young people. Exactly 3 in 10 (30 percent) of young people had experienced playing arcade gaming machines in the last 12 months.

Experience was greater amongst those aged 11 to 13 than those aged 14 to 17 (34 percent, compared to 28 percent). Differences were also apparent by ethnicity, with young people from white ethnic groups (34 percent) more likely to have played arcade gaming machines in the last 12 months than young people from black and other minority ethnic backgrounds (23 percent).

Fewer young people overall had experienced playing fruit or slot machines or gambling machines in betting shops. A total of 7 percent of young people had played fruit or slot machines in the last 12 months, whilst 1 percent reported having played gambling machines in a betting shop. There were no statistically significant differences in experience of either fruit or slot machines or gambling machines within betting shops within the past year by gender, age or ethnicity.

Around 1 in 12 (8 percent) young people had played cards for money (for example with friends or family) within the last 12 months. Boys were statistically more likely than girls to have had experience of playing cards for money in the past year (9 percent, compared to 7 percent), whilst those aged 14 to 17 were more likely than those aged 11 to 13 (10 percent, compared to 6 percent).

When looking at figures across the last 3 years, while playing arcade gaming machines has remained the most cited gambling activity amongst young people, the proportion is significantly lower in 2024 (30 percent) than it was in 2022 (35 percent).

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Young people spending their own money on games and gaming machines Next section
Who young people were with when they played gaming machines

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Last updated: 7 November 2024

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