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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.

Published
7 November 2024

Last updated
7 November 2024 - Changes

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Contents

Summary

This section focuses on online gambling, which includes spending money on eSports, online casino games, betting websites and apps, National Lottery online instant win games1 and online bingo. It examines in more detail young people’s active involvement and experience over the last 12 months, as well as awareness of activities which are akin to gambling, like eSports and in-game items within video games.

Findings are compared with previous years of the survey to identify trends where the questionnaire has remained consistent. Statistically significant differences are highlighted across the years 2022 to 2024, though the 2022 sample did not include year 12 pupils or independent schools and so comparisons with this year are indicative only.

Definitions

eSports

Short for electronic sports, eSports is the competitive playing of video games, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams.

In-game items

Skins are one example of in-game items which can be won or bought within a video game to change the appearance of a character, avatar or weapon. On some websites (separate to the game itself), players can trade, bet on and sell their skins in exchange for cash. This is called skins gambling.

One commonly used method for players to acquire in-game items is through in-game payments to open loot boxes which contain an unknown quantity and value of in-game items. The use of features which include expenditure and chance has led to concern that loot boxes are akin to gambling. The Gambling Commission’s view on skins gambling, loot boxes and related issues is as set out in the position paper published in March 2017 - Virtual currencies eSports and social casino gaming. The government undertook an extensive call for evidence on loot boxes, and published its response in July 2022 (opens in new tab). An update from the government on industry-led measures to improve player protections with regards to loot boxes was published in July 2023 - Loot boxes in video games: update on improvements to industry-led protections (opens in new tab).

A total of 2 percent of young people reported having spent their own money in the past year placing a bet on a betting website or app, whilst fewer had placed a bet on eSports, played casino games online or played bingo online (each cited by 1 percent).

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 experienced bingo online (2 percent) or National Lottery online instant win games (1 percent).

Overall, 8 percent of young people had used their parents’ or guardians’ accounts for these types of online gambling, with most using with their permission (7 percent overall), as opposed to using them without their parents’ or guardians’ permission (2 percent overall).

A majority of young people were aware they could pay for in-game items and ‘mods’ (68 percent) and loot boxes or packs or chests (63 percent), with a smaller proportion being aware they could bet with in-game items (37 percent). When asked if they had done each of these, over half had paid for in-game items and ‘mods’ (57 percent), more than a third had paid for loot boxes or packs or chests (37 percent) while fewer (4 percent) had bet with in-game items. Of those young people who had paid for in-game items or mods, over half did so using gift cards (57 percent), virtual currency bought with money (56 percent) or money from their own bank account (52 percent). Those who had paid to open loot boxes or packs or chests to get in-game items also used a range of payment methods, with the most likely being virtual currency obtained without spending any money (58 percent) or virtual currency bought with money (54 percent).

References

1The survey also covered National Lottery draws. However, this category includes purchasing physical tickets as well as buying tickets online, and so it has not been included in this online gambling section. This section also does not include in-game betting. These categories are covered separately in other sections of the report.

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Young people’s active involvement in online gambling
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