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

Presentation and interpretation of data

When interpreting the findings, it is important to remember that results are based on a sample of the maintained and independent school population, and not the entire population of 11 to 17 year olds in England, Scotland, and Wales. The survey data reported here has been weighted to ensure the findings are nationally representative of young people at secondary schools in England, Scotland and Wales (see appendices for more detail on weighting). Applying weights to the data, while tending to make the quoted figures more representative of the population of interest, also reduces the statistical reliability of the data. Results from any survey are estimates, and there is a margin of error associated with each figure quoted. Essentially, the smaller the sample size, the greater the uncertainty.

Throughout this report, unless specified, findings with sufficient sample sizes have been included and all differences noted between subgroups are significant at the 95 percent significance level. A guide to statistical significance is included in the Appendices of the report.

Please note that when different response categories are combined (for example 'strongly agree' and 'agree') then the combined figure may sometimes differ slightly from the total that would be obtained by summing the 2 separate percentage figures. This is due to the rounding of figures to the nearest whole number.

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Headline statistics Next section
Key terms used in the report

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Last updated: 13 November 2025

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