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.

---

Published
7 November 2024

Last updated
7 November 2024 - Changes

Document actions
Print or save (opens in new tab)

Contents

• Young People and Gambling 2024: Official statistics

---

• 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

Young people spending their own money on games and gaming machines

1 in 5 (20 percent) young people had spent their own money on arcade gaming machines such as penny pushers or claw grab machines in the last 12 months. This was more prevalent among young people from white ethnic groups (23 percent) than those from black and other minority ethnic backgrounds (12 percent).

In comparison, 4 percent of young people had spent their own money playing fruit or slot machines and 1 percent on playing gambling machines in a betting shop. Again, there was a difference in active involvement by ethnic background, with young people from white ethnic groups more likely than those from black and other minority ethnic backgrounds to have spent their own money playing fruit or slot machines within the past year (4 percent, compared to 2 percent).

1 in 20 (5 percent) young people had spent their own money playing cards for money in the past year. This was more prevalent amongst boys (7 percent, compared to 3 percent of girls), 14 to 17 year olds (6 percent, compared to 4 percent of 11 to 13 year olds) and young people from white ethnic groups (6 percent, compared to 4 percent of young people from black and other minority ethnic backgrounds).

Previous section
Summary Next section
Overall experience of playing games and gaming machines

---

Last updated: 7 November 2024

Show updates to this content

No changes to show.