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

Summary

This section covers young people’s recall of seeing or hearing gambling adverts, including the frequency and perceived impact of exposure, as well as their experiences of following gambling related content on social media or streaming platforms.

Findings are compared with previous years of the survey to identify trends. 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. Tables and analysis are included where significant differences were identified between 2024 and either 2022 or 2023.

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 a similar proportion overall, 62 percent, citing an online source. TV, apps and social media were the most frequently cited sources (54 percent, 52 percent and 49 percent respectively).

These 3 sources were also those most likely to be cited by young people as channels through which they had seen or heard gambling-related adverts at least weekly (46 percent of those who had seen adverts via social media noting they had done so at least once a week; with comparative figures of 45 percent via apps and 44 percent via TV).

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. About 1 in 12 of these young people (8 percent) noted that they had been prompted by these adverts to spend money on gambling.

Almost 1 in 6 (17 percent) young people highlighted that they followed gambling companies through at least one social media and/or streaming platform, with the most frequently cited platforms being TikTok (cited by 10 percent of young people), YouTube (9 percent), Instagram (6 percent) and Snapchat (6 percent).

Next section
Recall of gambling advertising or promotions

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Last updated: 7 November 2024

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