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

List of gambling activities

The survey contained 4 questions which were designed to identify gambling experience and establish rates of active involvement in gambling among young people during the past 7 days, 4 weeks, 12 months and more than 12 months ago.

All young people were asked whether they had ever experienced a range of 17 gambling activities shown in a list. For each activity they had ever experienced, they were then asked when they last did so, whether they had spent their own money on it and when they last spent their own money.

The list of gambling activities which formed the basis of the gambling prevalence questions is shown in Table A.10.

Table A.10: List of gambling activities

The list of gambling activities are:

• National Lottery draw for example Lotto, EuroMillions or Set for Life, either with a physical ticket or playing online
• National Lottery Scratchcards (not free Scratchcards)
• National Lottery online instant win games
• other Lotteries (for example The Health Lottery, People’s Postcode Lottery, or other smaller lotteries)
• arcade gaming machines (for example penny pusher or claw grab machine)
• fruit or slot machines (for example at an arcade, pub or social club)
• gambling machines in a betting shop
• cards for money (for example with friends or family)
• bingo at a bingo club
• bingo at somewhere other than a bingo club (for example social club or holiday park)
• bingo online (for example Foxy Bingo, Gala Bingo or Tombola)
• bet for money between friends or family
• bet on esports (electronic sports such as playing video games competitively) online
• bet at a betting shop or bookies (for example on football or horse racing)
• bet on a betting website and/or app (for example on football or horse racing)
• game inside a casino
• casino games online (for example online poker or online roulette for money).

Next section
Definitions

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Last updated: 7 November 2024

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