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
- Executive summary
- 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
- List of gambling activities and definitions
Online gambling using parents’ or guardians’ accounts
To understand the context in which young people experience online gambling, all young people in the survey were separately asked if they had ever used their parents’ or guardians’ accounts to gamble online, with or without their permission. This covered playing National Lottery games online, or playing on gambling websites or to place bets online.
Overall, 8 percent of young people had used their parents’ or guardians’ accounts for these types of online gambling, with most having their permission (7 percent overall), as opposed to not having their parents’ or guardians’ permission (2 percent overall). The same patterns are apparent when looking at specific types of online gambling as 6 percent of young people had played National Lottery games online using their parents’ or guardians’ account with their permission, compared to 1 percent without their permission. Similarly, 6 percent had played on gambling websites or placed bets online via their parents’ or guardians’ account with permission, compared to 2 percent without permission.
Boys were more likely than girls to have used parents’ or guardians’ account without their permission. This is the case for both playing National lottery games online and playing on gambling websites and/or placing bets online (2 percent compared to 1 percent respectively).
Figure 5.1: Online gambling using parents’ or guardians’ accounts
Figure 5.1 information
GC_PLAYONLINE. Please read all of the sentences below and select those that are true about you. Here ‘online’ refers to websites and apps.
Base: All answering (3,329).
| Online gambling using a parents or guardians account | Percentage (multiple response question, therefore, answers do not sum to 100 percent) |
|---|---|
| I have used my parents’ or guardians’ account to play National Lottery games online with their permission | 6% |
| I have used my parents’ or guardians’ account to play on gambling websites or to place bets online with their permission | 6% |
| I have used my parents’ or guardians’ account to play on gambling websites or place bets online without their permission | 2% |
| I have used my parents’ or guardians’ account to play National lottery games online without their permission | 1% |
| None of these sentences are true about me | 92% |
The proportion of young people overall who used their parent’s or guardian’s account to gamble online has remained consistent with figures in 2022 and 2023. Within this, the proportion who used their parents' or guardians’ account to play National lottery games online without their permission decreased, to 1 percent in 2024 from 2 percent in 2023, returning to the same figure as in 2022.
Table 5.2: Online gambling using parents’ or guardians’ accounts, in 2022, 2023 and 2024
Table 5.2 information
GC_PLAYONLINE. Please read all of the sentences below and select those that are true about you. Here ‘online’ refers to websites and apps.
Base: All answering 2022 (2,295), 2023 (2,750), 2024 (3,329).
| Online gambling using a parents or guardians account | 2022 (percentage) | 2023 (percentage) | 2024 (percentage) | Statistical differences 2024 compared to 2022 | Statistical differences 2024 compared to 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Used parents’ or guardians’ account to play National Lottery games online with their permission | 5% | 5% | 6% | No significant difference | No significant difference |
| Used parents’ or guardians’ account to play on gambling websites or place bets online with their permission | 5% | 5% | 6% | No significant difference | No significant difference |
| Used parents’ or guardians’ account to play National lottery games online without their permission | 1% | 2% | 1% | No significant difference | Significant decrease |
| Used parents’ or guardians’ account to play on gambling websites or place bets’ online without their permission | 1% | 2% | 2% | Significant increase | No significant difference |
| None of these sentences are true about me | 93% | 92% | 92% | No significant difference | No significant difference |
Overall experience of online gambling Next section
Paying for and betting with in-game items in video games
Last updated: 7 November 2024
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