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
Recall of gambling advertising or promotions
Around 7 in 10 young people (69 percent) recalled having seen or heard adverts or promotion about gambling through at least one online or offline source. Around two-thirds cited an offline source (64 percent), with TV the most common (54 percent), followed by sport events, including on players’ shirts or around pitches (40 percent) and posters or billboards (37 percent). A similar proportion overall (62 percent) cited an online source, with apps (52 percent), social media (49 percent) and video sharing platforms (36 percent) the most frequently noted.
Figure 8.1: Recall of sources of gambling adverts or promotion
Figure 8.1 information
GC_ADAWARE. Have you seen or heard adverts or promotion about gambling in any of the following places?
Base: All participants 2024 (3,869).
Note: This is a multiple response question, so the responses shown will not add up to 100 percent.
| Recall of sources of gambling adverts or promotion | 2024 (percentage) (multiple response question, answers do not sum to 100 percent) |
|---|---|
| Gambling adverts offline | 64% |
| Gambling advert online | 62% |
| On TV | 54% |
| On an app | 52% |
| On social media (including Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok) | 49% |
| At a sports event (for example at football stadiums or on players' shirts or around the pitch) | 40% |
| On posters or billboards | 37% |
| On live streaming or video sharing platforms (including Twitch and YouTube) | 36% |
| In newspapers or magazines | 34% |
| On the radio | 33% |
| On another website | 32% |
| On a podcast | 18% |
| Somewhere else | 21% |
Young people aged 14 to 17 were more likely than those aged 11 to 13 to recall having seen adverts or promotion about gambling both offline (68 percent, compared to 58 percent) and online (67 percent, compared to 55 percent).
There were also variations by ethnicity. Young people from white ethnic groups were more likely than those from black and other minority ethnic backgrounds to recall seeing or hearing adverts or promotion about gambling via both offline sources (66 percent, compared to 59 percent) and online channels or platforms (64 percent, compared to 59 percent).
Young people in Scotland were more likely than those in England to recall seeing or hearing gambling related adverts or promotion both offline (71 percent, compared to 63 percent offline) and online (70 percent, compared to 61 percent).
Overall, the 2024 recall figures are more in line with the 2022 findings, than they are with the 2023 survey which had previously shown a decrease in recall across all sources. It may be that the 2023 figures were an anomaly in overall trends. However, since 2022 there has been a decrease in the proportion of young people who recall seeing or hearing gambling related adverts or promotions on the TV (from 57 percent to 54 percent), while the proportion who recall seeing or hearing these on both social media and at a sports event has increased (from 44 percent to 49 percent and from 37 percent to 40 percent).
Table 8.1: Exposure to gambling advertising or promotion in 2022, 2023 and 2024
Table 8.1 information
GC_ADAWARE. Have you seen or heard adverts or promotion about gambling in any of the following places?
Base: All participants. 2022 (2,559), 2023 (3,453) 2024 (3,869).
Note: This is a multiple response question, so the responses shown will not add up to 100 percent.
| Exposure to gambling adverts | 2022 (percentage) (multiple response question, therefore, answers do not sum to 100 percent) |
2023 (percentage) (multiple response question, therefore, answers do not sum to 100 percent) |
2024 (percentage) (multiple response question, therefore, answers do not sum to 100 percent) |
Statistical differences 2024 compared to 2022 | Statistical differences 2024 compared to 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gambling adverts offline | 66% | 55% | 64% | No significant difference | Significant increase |
| Gambling adverts online | 63% | 53% | 62% | No significant difference | Significant increase |
| On TV | 57% | 47% | 54% | Significant decrease | Significant increase |
| On an app | 54% | 45% | 52% | No significant difference | Significant increase |
| On social media | 44% | 40% | 49% | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| At a sports event | 37% | 35% | 40% | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| On posters or billboards | 36% | 32% | 37% | No significant difference | Significant increase |
| On live streaming or video sharing platforms | 36% | 30% | 36% | No significant difference | Significant increase |
| In newspapers or magazines | 33% | 30% | 34% | No significant difference | Significant increase |
| On the radio | 33% | 29% | 33% | No significant difference | Significant increase |
| On another website | 35% | 28% | 32% | Significant decrease | Significant increase |
| On a podcast | Not asked | 13% | 18% | Not applicable | Significant increase |
| Somewhere else | 22% | 19% | 21% | No significant difference | No significant difference |
Summary Next section
Frequency of seeing or hearing gambling adverts or promotions
Last updated: 7 November 2024
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