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
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- 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
Overall experience of playing games and gaming machines
This section covers the types of games and gaming machines young people play. As reported in the chapter titled Experience of different categories of gambling activities, the most common type of gambling activity was play on arcade gaming machines. Just over a third (35 percent) of young people played arcade gaming machines in the last 12 months.
Playing arcade machines is more prevalent among 11 to 15 year olds, than older groups (37 percent of 11 to 15 year olds, compared with 26 percent of 16 to 17 year olds). There were also differences by ethnicity, with 4 in 10 (39 percent) young people who are white playing on arcade games compared with a quarter of young people from ethnic minorities (26 percent).
Those young people who had seen family members gamble (45 percent) were also more likely to have played on arcade machines in the past 12 months, compared with those who have not (33 percent). Similarly, young people who define themselves as ‘risk-takers’ were more likely to have played on arcade gaming machines in the last 12 months (39 percent, compared with 32 percent of those who are not ‘risk-takers’). These variations are common to all types of gambling activities within the category of games and gaming machines.
Playing on other types of gaming or gambling machines were less common among 11 to 17 year olds. This is to be expected as these machines are age restricted whereas arcade gaming machines are legal for young people to play. Less than 1 in 10 (7 percent) had played fruit or slot machines in the last 12 months, while 1 percent had played gambling machines in a betting shop. Those aged 15 were more likely than average to report playing fruit or slot machines (9 percent, compared with 7 percent). In addition, those who are white were more likely to play fruit or slot machines, compared with young people from ethnic minorities (7 percent, compared with 5 percent).
One in ten (9 percent) young people played cards for money (for example, with friends or family) within the last 12 months. Boys were more likely than girls to play cards for money (11 percent, compared with 7 percent). Those who are white were also more likely than those from ethnic minorities to report playing cards in the last 12 months (10 percent, compared with 6 percent).
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Types of gaming machine played
Last updated: 13 November 2025
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