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
Summary
This section explores young people’s wider experience of gambling, which is taking part in gambling but not necessarily with their own money.
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.
Definitions
Experience of gambling
Young people were asked whether they have engaged in any of 17 different gambling activities which, for analysis purposes, are grouped within the following 5 categories:
Lotteries or lottery style games
Includes:
- National Lottery draws (for example Lotto, EuroMillions or Set for Life) either with a physical ticket or playing online
- National Lottery Scratchcards (not free Scratchcards)
- National Lottery online instant win games
- other lotteries (for example The Health Lottery, People’s Postcode Lottery, or other smaller lotteries).
Games and gaming machines
Includes:
- arcade gaming machines (for example penny pusher or claw grab machine)
- fruit or slot machines (for example at an arcade, pub or social club)
- gambling machines in a betting shop
- cards for money (for example with friends or family).
Bingo
Includes:
- bingo at a bingo club
- bingo at somewhere other than a bingo club (for example social club or holiday park)
- bingo online (for example Foxy Bingo, Gala Bingo or Tombola).
Placing a bet
Includes activities such as:
- placing a bet for money between friends or family
- placing a bet on eSports (electronic sports such as playing video games competitively) online
- placing a bet at a betting shop or bookies (for example on football or horse racing)
- placing a bet on a betting website and/or app (for example on football or horse racing).
Casino games
Includes:
- playing a game inside a casino
- playing casino games online (for example online poker or online roulette for money).
In total, just over half (52 percent) of all 11 to 17 year olds had some experience of gambling, with 44 percent having experienced some form of gambling activity in the last 12 months.
Games and gaming machines are the most common category of gambling activity, with playing arcade gaming machines (for example penny pusher or claw grab machine) being the most frequently experienced type of gambling amongst young people (30 percent experiencing within the last year).
When experiencing gambling activities, around three quarters of young people (73 percent) said they were with a parent, carer or guardian. 1 in 10 (10 percent) reported being alone on the most recent occasion they had gambled.
Of those who had ever experienced gambling, 15 percent reported having been stopped because they were too young.
The survey also measured young people’s self-reported involvement in a range of other risk-taking behaviours; 37 percent of young people had drunk alcohol in the past 12 months, 15 percent had used an e-cigarette or vape, 8 percent noted having smoked a tobacco cigarette, and 7 percent reported having taken illegal drugs (including cannabis).
Next sectionWider experience and active involvement in gambling
Last updated: 7 November 2024
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