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
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition – Multiple Response Juvenile (DSM-IV-MR-J) screen
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition - Multiple Response Juvenile (DSM-IV-MR-J) screen consists of 9 actions or behaviours which assess whether a child who gambles is identified as experiencing problems with their gambling.
The 9 DSM-IV-MR-J items are:
- thinking about gambling or planning to gamble
- gambling to help you escape from problems or when you are feeling bad
- feeling bad or fed up when trying to cut down on gambling
- needing to gamble with more and more money to get the amount of excitement you want
- spending much more than you planned to on gambling
- taking money from any of the following without permission to spend on gambling: dinner money or fare money, money from family, money from things you have sold, money from outside the family, money from somewhere else
- gambling ever leading to arguments with family and/or friends or others, or missing school
- gambling ever leading to telling lies to family and/or friends or others
- after losing money by gambling, returning another day to try to win back the money you lost.
The DSM-IV-MR-J is asked of all young people who have spent their own money on at least one gambling activity in the past 12 months. Answer options were ‘never’, ‘once or twice’, ‘sometimes’ or ‘often’. Responses to the 9 questions are summed and a score ranging between 0 and 9 is computed. Scores are grouped into the following categories:
DSM-IV-MR-J score 0 or 1:
Representing a young person who does not experience any 'problems' with their gambling.
DSM-IV-MR-J score 2 or 3:
Representing a young person who is 'at-risk'.
DSM-IV-MR-J score 4 or more:
Representing a young person experiencing 'problems' with their gambling.
The youth-adapted screen (DSM-IV-MR-J) is not comparable to the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) used for adults, which assess impacts on household finances among other factors. The youth adapted screen (DSM-IV-MR-J) is also not comparable to the adult equivalent of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition. Information on how the screen is applied for the purpose of this survey can be found in the Appendices.
A total of 1.2 percent of young people scored 4 or more on the DSM-IV-MR-J, 2.2 percent scored 2 or 3, and 27.0 percent scored 0 or 1. A total of 7 in 10 young people (69.6 percent) were not actively involved in gambling. Decimal places were used in the analysis to provide a more granular breakdown across categories.
Figure 2.3: DSM-IV-MR-J Youth Adapted problem gambling screen
Figure 2.3 information
Chart shows types of young people’s gambling risk profile as defined by the DSM-IV-MR-J youth-adapted problem gambling screen.
Base: All 11 to 17 year olds answering 2025 (3,666).
| DSM-IV-MR-J Youth Adapted problem gambling screen | 2025 (percentage) |
|---|---|
| Never have gambled | 69.6% |
| DSM-IV-MR-J score 0 or 1 | 27.0% |
| DSM-IV-MR-J score 2 or 3 | 2.2% |
| DSM-IV-MR-J score 4 or more | 1.2% |
Despite the increase in the overall percentage of young people spending their own money on gambling activities in 2025, there has been no comparable rise in those defined as having gambling problems. The proportion of young people overall scoring 4 or more on the DSM-IV-MR-J has decreased from 1.5 percent in 2024 to 1.2 percent in 2025. Over the same period, the proportion of those scoring 2 or 3 on the DSM-IV-MR-J has increased from 1.9 to 2.2. These changes over time are indicative only as these reported changes are not statistically significant.
The data does, however, highlight a significant increase in the proportion of young people scoring 0 or 1 on the DSM-IV-MR-J, indicating fewer gambling-related problems, from 23.2 percent in 2024 to 27.0 percent in 2025.
Table 2.4: DSM-IV-MR-J Youth Adapted problem gambling screen 2024 to 2025
Types of gambling as defined by the DSM-IV-MR-J youth-adapted screen.
Base: All answering 2024 (3,869) and 2025 (3,666).
| Gambling category | 2024 (percentage) | 2025 (percentage) | Statistical difference 2025 compared with 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| DSM-IV-MR-J score 0 or 1 | 23.2% | 27.0% | Significant increase |
| DSM-IV-MR-J score 2 or 3 | 1.9% | 2.2% | No significant difference |
| DSM-IV-MR-J score 4 or more | 1.5% | 1.2% | No significant difference |
| Never have gambled | 72.7% | 69.6% | No significant difference |
| Prefer not to say | 0.7% | 0.1% | No significant difference |
DSM-IV-MR-J: Demographic profile
Boys were more likely than girls to score 4 or more on the DSM-IV-MR-J (1.2 percent, compared with 0.8 percent).
Table 2.5: DSM-IV-MR-J by gender
| Gambling risk profile | Total | Score 0 or 1 | Score 2 or 3 | Score 4 or more | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base | Base | Percentage | Base | Percentage | Base | Percentage | |
| Boys | 1,856 | 530 | 29.5% | 57 | 3.2% | 21 | 1.2% |
| Girls | 1,697 | 447 | 25.5% | 15 | 0.9% | 14 | 0.8% |
Young people who have seen members of their family gamble were comparatively more likely to score 4 or more on the DSM-IV-MR-J than those who had not (2 percent, compared with 0.5 percent).
Table 2.6: DSM-IV-MR-J by whether young people have seen a family member gamble
| Gambling risk profile | Total | Score 0 or 1 | Score 2 or 3 | Score 4 or more | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base | Base | Percentage | Base | Percentage | Base | Percentage | |
| Seen a family member gamble | 1,014 | 357.7 | 36% | 41.2 | 4.2% | 19.7 | 2% |
| Not seen a family member gamble | 1,946 | 494.2 | 24.9% | 21.5 | 1.1% | 9.9 | 0.5% |
The numbers of individuals who fall into the categories of scoring 2 to 3 and 4 or more are below our threshold for analysis of 50 or more cases. As such these results should be treated with caution.
Previous sectionReasons why young people gamble
Last updated: 13 November 2025
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