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
Overall experience of online gambling
When taking into account any experience of online gambling – regardless of whether or not they spent their own money – a total of 8 percent of young people reported having had some experience. This included 3 percent each who had placed a bet on eSports, placed a bet on a website or an app, and played casino games online. Fewer young people had experience of playing bingo online (2 percent) or National Lottery online instant win games (1 percent).
Boys were more likely than girls to have experienced placing a bet on a website or app (4 percent compared to 1 percent), to have played casino games online (4 percent compared to 1 percent) and to have placed a bet on eSports (3 percent compared to 1 percent). In contrast, girls were more likely than boys to have experienced playing online bingo (3 percent compared to 2 percent).
The proportion of young people who had experienced some form of online gambling in the last 12 months was higher than in 2023 (6 percent in 2023 and 8 percent in 2024). Young people were more likely in 2024 to have placed a bet on eSports, to have placed a bet on a betting website or app (both increasing from 2 to 3 percent) and to have experienced playing casino games online (increasing from 1 to 3 percent).
Table 5.1: Type of online gambling have experienced in last 12 months, in 2022, 2023 and 2024
Table 5.1 information
GC_GAMSPEND. Have you ever done any of the following activities?
GC_GAMSPENDWHEN. When did you last do this activity? Was it...?
Base: All answering 2022 (2,559), 2023 (3,453), 2024 (3,489).
| Type of online gambling | 2022 (percentage) | 2023 (percentage) | 2024 (percentage) | Statistical differences 2024 compared to 2022 | Statistical differences 2024 compared to 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Had experienced online gambling in past year | 10% | 6% | 8% | Significant decrease | Significant increase |
| Placed a bet on eSports | 3% | 2% | 3% | No significant difference | Significant increase |
| Placed a bet on betting website and/or app | 3% | 2% | 3% | No significant difference | Significant increase |
| Played casino games online | 2% | 1% | 3% | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Played bingo online | 1% | 2% | 2% | Significant increase | No significant difference |
| National Lottery instant win games | 1% | 1% | 1% | No significant difference | No significant difference |
Young people’s active involvement in online gambling Next section
Online gambling using parents’ or guardians’ accounts
Last updated: 7 November 2024
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