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.
Contents
- Executive summary
- 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
- Trends in gambling behaviours: 2022 to 2025
- Young people’s exposure to gambling
- The impact of gambling on young people
- Gambling activities and gaming
- Perspectives on gambling: Awareness, attitudes and behaviours
- Appendices
Gaming
Questions on the awareness and use of in-game items were amended in 2025 to update the names of the games provided as examples and to ensure that the questions are well understood by young people completing the survey. As such the findings are not comparable with previous datasets.
Awareness of paying for in-game items
People who play video games (such as Roblox, Fortnite, FIFA or EA Sports FC, Call of Duty, GTA, Minecraft or Block Blast) can collect in-game items (such as skins, clothes, weapons, accessories, players). Young people who participated in the survey were shown a list of in-games items and asked whether they were aware of the different types.
Young people were most likely to have heard of virtual in-game items that can be bought with in-game money without spending real money and virtual in-game items that can be bought with their own money (80 percent in both instances).
Around three-quarters of young people were aware that you can open virtual surprise boxes with in-game money (77 percent) and open virtual surprise boxes with their own money (73 percent). Less well known were paying to play casino games in an in-game casino (59 percent) and betting with in-game items on websites outside of the game you are playing (50 percent), as shown in Figure 6.4.
Figure 6.4: Awareness among young people regarding paying for in-game items
Figure 6.4 information
INGAMEAWARE: Which, if any, of these were you aware of before today?
Base per statement 2025: Buying virtual items in games with your own money (3,490), Buying virtual items with in-game money without spending your own money (3,492), Opening virtual surprise boxes with in-game money (3,491), Opening virtual surprise boxes with your own money or your parents’ and/or carers’ money (3,478), Paying to play casino games in an in-game casino (3,474), Betting with in-came items on websites outside of the game you are playing (3,466).
| Awareness among young people regarding paying for in-game items | 2025 (percentage) (This shows responses to 2 separate questions and so totals will not add up to 100 percent) |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| Aware | Not aware | Do not know | |
| Buying virtual items in games with your own money | 80% | 7% | 13% |
| Buying virtual items with in-game money without spending your own money | 80% | 7% | 13% |
| Opening virtual surprise boxes with in-game money | 77% | 9% | 14% |
| Opening virtual surprise boxes with your own money or your parents’ and/or carers’ money | 73% | 12% | 15% |
| Paying to play casino games in an in-game casino | 59% | 20% | 20% |
| Betting with in-came items on websites outside of the game you are playing | 50% | 27% | 24% |
Awareness of in-game items was consistently higher among boys (86 percent, compared with 80 percent of girls), older groups (85 percent of 14 to 17 year olds, compared with 80 percent of 11 to 13 year olds), those who feel informed about gambling (89 percent, compared with 66 percent who are not) and young people who have seen family members gamble (90 percent, compared with 83 percent who have not).
Young people who use virtual items
Young people who were aware of in-game items were then asked which they have personally bought, opened, paid to play with or bet with.
The most common activity was buying virtual items with in-game money without spending any real money (64 percent), followed by buying virtual items in games with your own money (for example pocket money, gift cards) or your parent or carer’s money (60 percent) and opening virtual surprise boxes with in-game money (55 percent). The least common activity was to pay to play casino games in an in-game casino (9 percent) and bet with in-game items on websites outside of the game you are playing (6 percent). It should be noted that young people rarely bet with in-game items.
There were consistent differences across key sub-groups with boys, self-defined risk-takers, and those who see their families gamble more likely to use virtual items, as were young people that were actively involved in gambling in the last 12 months (13 percent had done none of these activities, compared with 18 percent overall).
How young people buy virtual items
Overall, the most popular method used by young people to buy virtual items in-game was with a gift card (62 percent) followed by using money from their own bank account (56 percent) and virtual currency bought with money (55 percent). The most popular way of buying virtual surprise boxes was using money from their own bank account (60 percent), followed by virtual money bought by money (54 percent) and virtual currency obtained without spending any money (52 percent).
The modes of payment used to buy virtual items vary by age, with older groups (14 to 17 year olds) most likely to buy virtual items using money from their own bank account (62 percent), whereas younger groups (11 to 13 year olds) pay for items using a gift card (63 percent).
Previous sectionNational Lottery play
Last updated: 19 November 2025
Show updates to this content
Correction to the table layout for figure 6.4.