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.

---

Published
13 November 2025

Last updated
13 November 2025 - Changes

Document actions
Print or save (opens in new tab)

Contents

• Young People and Gambling 2025: Official statistics

---

• 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

Key terms used in the report

We have 2 possible ways of interpreting gambling behaviour which are referenced throughout this report:

1. Active involvement in gambling – Young people who spent their own money (defined as any pocket money, birthday money or money they earned themselves) on gambling.

2. Experience of gambling – Young people who have gambled but not necessarily spending their own money on doing so. For example, they may have been involved in picking lottery numbers with family and/or friends or choosing horses in a horse race.

Regulated and unregulated forms of gambling – The Gambling Commission regulates gambling operators and key individuals in Great Britain. Regulation is designed to ensure children and young people, under the minimum legal age for gambling of 18, are unable to gamble on age restricted products licensed by the Commission. However, there are some types of gambling which are unregulated and fall outside of the remit of the Commission such as non-commercial gambling between friends and family or playing bingo somewhere other than a bingo club.

In addition to products licensed by the Commission, this report also covers these types of gambling activities which sit outside the Commission’s remit and are legally available to children and young people. To distinguish between these different types of gambling we refer in this report to ‘regulated’ and ‘unregulated’ forms of gambling:

Regulated forms of gambling – Those gambling activities which are licensed and regulated by the Commission including betting or casino gaming provided by a licensed operator online or from premises, playing the National Lottery or other lottery products. This categorisation also includes playing gaming machines in betting shops, bingo premises, casinos or arcades. Due to different categories and requirements relating to gaming machines this report will include some gaming machine play which is not directly regulated by the Commission and will include incidences of playing machines which can be legally played by children and young people.

Unregulated forms of gambling – Those gambling activities which fall outside the remit of the Commission such as non-commercial gambling between friends and family or playing bingo somewhere other than a bingo club.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition - Multiple Response Juvenile (DSM-IV-MR-J) screen was applied to assess whether respondents who gamble are defined as experiencing problems with their gambling. Scores are then grouped into the following categories:

• young people who have never gambled
• young people scoring 0 or 1 on the DSM-IV-MR-J, representing a young person who does not experience any ‘problems’ with their gambling
• young people scoring 2 or 3 on the DSM-IV-MR-J, representing a young person who is ‘at risk’
• young people scoring 4 or more on the DSM-IV-MR-J, representing a young person experiencing ‘problems’ with their gambling.

Gaming – Although the Commission does not regulate gaming, there has been a convergence of gaming and gambling over time, with games now including features which are akin to gambling. These include outcomes or rewards in online gaming, such as loot boxes and monetised in-game items, including skins. This survey explores young people’s awareness and engagement with gaming activities to provide insight into the link between gaming and gambling.

For further information on terms used throughout this report and their definitions see the Appendices.

Previous section
Presentation and interpretation of data Next section
Acknowledgements

---

Last updated: 13 November 2025

Show updates to this content

No changes to show.