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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.

Contents


Summary

This section focuses on young people’s active involvement and experiences with lotteries and lottery style games. When interpreting findings within this section, it should be noted that legislation changed in 2021 to increase the minimum age that people can purchase National Lottery products (opens in new tab) from 16 to 18 years old, and so the majority of respondents to this survey are below this minimum age.

Definitions

Experience of lotteries and lottery style games

Lotteries and lottery style games includes National Lottery Draws, National Lottery scratchcards, National Lottery Instant win games and other lotteries such as The Health Lottery and the People’s Postcode Lottery. Experience of these includes both spending their own money to play lotteries and lottery style games, as well as experiencing without spending their own money, which might potentially include picking lottery numbers for others or scratching off the numbers on someone else’s ticket or card.

Overall, just under 1 in 10 (9 percent) young people had experience of some form of lottery or lottery style game in the past 12 months. In this context, ‘experience’ could mean getting involved with picking lottery numbers or scratching off the numbers on someone else’s ticket or card. However, only 2 percent of young people had spent their own money on lotteries and lottery style games within this time, with just 1 percent having spent their own money on a National Lottery scratchcard or draw.

It is important to note that most young people were in the company of their parent, carer, or guardian when purchasing a National Lottery scratchcard or draw, and in most cases, they did not make the purchase themselves.

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Active involvement with lotteries and lottery style games
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