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

Perceived impact of gambling adverts on unplanned spending

Young people who recalled having seen a gambling-related advert or promotion were asked if these adverts or promotions had ever prompted them to spend money on gambling that they were not otherwise planning to. Around 1 in 12 of these young people (8 percent) noted that they had been prompted by these adverts to spend money on gambling.

Figure 8.3: The perceived impact of adverts on unplanned spending on gambling

Figure 8.3 information

GC_ADSPEND. Have adverts or promotion about gambling ever prompted you to spend money on gambling when you were not otherwise planning to?
Base: All participants answering who have seen or heard any gambling adverts or promotions (2,592).
Note: Responses do not add up to 100 percent due to rounding.

The perceived impact of adverts on unplanned spending on gambling

Response	2024 (percentage)
Yes	8%
No	82%
Do not know	11%

There were no differences by gender, age or ethnicity in terms of whether or not young people felt they had been prompted to spend money on gambling after seeing or hearing an advert, though those young people who had seen a family member gamble were more likely than those who had not seen a family member gamble to feel they had been influenced by gambling-related adverts (11 percent, compared to 6 percent).

Findings on this question were consistent across the 2022, 2023 and 2024 surveys.

Previous section
Frequency of seeing or hearing gambling adverts or promotions Next section
Engagement with gambling related content on social media and streaming platforms

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Last updated: 7 November 2024

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