Report

Young People and Gambling 2025: Official statistics

Gambling Commission report produced by Ipsos on young people and their gambling behaviour, attitudes and awareness in 2025.

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Published
13 November 2025

Last updated
13 November 2025 - Changes

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Contents

• Young People and Gambling 2025: Official statistics

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• Executive summary
• • Introduction
  • Headline statistics
  • Presentation and interpretation of data
  • Key terms used in the report
  • Acknowledgements
• Wider experience of gambling
• • Summary
  • Wider experience and active involvement in gambling
  • Experience of different categories of gambling activities
  • Experience of different types of gambling activities
  • Who young people were with when they gambled
  • Being stopped from gambling for being too young
  • Gambling in the context of what young people do in their spare time
  • Gambling in the context of other risk taking behaviours
• Active involvement in gambling and experience of problem gambling
• • Summary
  • Definitions
  • Young people's active involvement in gambling
  • Reasons why young people gamble
  • The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition – Multiple Response Juvenile (DSM-IV-MR-J) screen
• Trends in gambling behaviours: 2022 to 2025
• • Summary
  • Experience of gambling 2022 to 2025
  • Active involvement in gambling 2022 to 2025
  • Trends in the DSM-IV-MR-J screen
• Young people’s exposure to gambling
• • 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
  • The role of influencers in advertising gambling-related content
• The impact of gambling on young people
• • Summary
  • Experience of ever seeing a family member gambling
  • Impact of seeing a family member gamble
  • The impact of gambling on school attendance
  • The impact of gambling on relationships
• Gambling activities and gaming
• • Summary
  • Overall experience of playing games and gaming machines
  • Types of gaming machine played
  • Playing arcade machines in adults-only areas
  • Who young people were with in an adult-only area
  • Online gambling
  • National Lottery play
  • Gaming
• Perspectives on gambling: Awareness, attitudes and behaviours
• • Summary
  • Feeling informed about gambling
  • Speaking to someone about gambling problems
  • Reasons why young people do not gamble
  • Young people who consider themselves risk-takers
• Appendices
• • The DSM-IV-MR-J problem gambler screen
  • Research design
  • List of gambling activities and definitions

Headline statistics

Three in five (59 percent) young people have some experience of gambling, with half (49 percent) gambling in the last 12 months. Arcade gaming machines (for example penny pushers, claw grab machines) are the most prevalent form of gambling, played by 35 percent of young people in the last 12 months.

Focusing on young people gambling with their own money, 3 in 10 (30 percent) reported doing so in the last 12 months, with boys (34 percent) more likely than girls (27 percent). This represents an increase from 27 percent in 2024, which appears largely driven by a rise in unregulated gambling (18 percent in 2025, compared with 15 percent in 2024). The primary motivation for gambling among young people is that they find it 'fun', cited by 78 percent of those who have used their own money to gamble in the last 12 months.

Analysis of trends in youth gambling between 2022 and 2025 indicates a consistency in behaviour and participation rates. The proportion of young people who have ever experienced gambling has remained constant, with 3 in 5 reporting having gambled at least once (60 percent in 2022 and 59 percent in 2025). Problem gambling, as measured by the youth-adapted problem gambling screen (DSM-IV-MR-J), has also remained consistent since 2022, with 1.2 percent scoring 4 or more (indicating problem gambling), 2.2 percent scoring 2 or 3, and 27.0 percent scoring 0 or 1.

Most young people (75 percent) gamble with a parent, carer, or guardian. A small minority (8 percent) gamble alone, a figure which has dipped slightly since 2024 (10 percent). Only 13 percent of those who have ever gambled were stopped because they were underage.

This shift towards digital consumption of information is reflected in the finding that young people are more likely to be exposed to gambling-related advertisements weekly online, rather than offline. Specifically, via social media (49 percent) or apps (47 percent). Boys were more likely than girls to see advertisements related to gambling across various platforms, including video sharing sites, such as YouTube (53 percent of boys, compared with 31 percent of girls) and at sports events (57 percent of boys, compared with 37 percent of girls). The 2025 survey also explored the influence of social media personalities, finding that 31 percent of young people who saw gambling-related content (16 percent of all respondents) reported that influencers had advertised gambling-related content to them.

For the first time, the survey explored attitudes towards risk-taking among young people. Forty percent of those spending their own money on gambling see themselves as risk-takers, significantly higher than the overall average. Alongside gambling, young people also engaged in other risk-taking behaviours in the last 12 months, including alcohol consumption (34 percent), vaping (13 percent), smoking tobacco cigarettes (5 percent), and taking illegal drugs (5 percent).

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Presentation and interpretation of data

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Last updated: 13 November 2025

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