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

Experience of gambling 2022 to 2025

This section of the chapter explores long-term trends in young people’s wider experience of gambling, including those who spend their own money. Overall, analysis of gambling behaviour from 2022 to 2025 suggests that there has been no significant change in the prevalence of young people gambling during this period.

As shown in Table 3.1, there were consistent levels of involvement as measured by the ever experienced gambling indicator (60 percent in 2022 and 59 percent in 2025) and in terms of gambling involvement in the last 12 months (50 percent in 2022 and 49 percent in 2025).

A similar consistent pattern was observed among young people who spent their own money on gambling in the last 12 months (31 percent in 2022 and 30 percent in 2025) and last 7 days (7 percent in 2022 and 6 percent in 2025). The only significant variation noted is a slight decrease in the proportion of young people who spent their own money on gambling activities in the 4 weeks preceding the survey, from 18 percent in 2022 to 16 percent in 2025.

The analysis of the 4 studies reveals a noticeable, yet short-term drop in gambling participation during 2023 and 2024. It is crucial to interpret this in the context of the overall stable engagement levels observed across the 2022 to 2025 timeframe. The consistency at other time points suggests that gambling activities maintain a significant appeal and accessibility for this demographic.

Table 3.1: Wider experience and active involvement in gambling in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025

Base: All answering 2022 (2,559), 2023 (3,453), 2024 (3,869) 2025 (3,666).

Table 3.1: Wider experience and active involvement in gambling in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025

Wider experience and active involvement in gambling in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025	2022 (percentage) (answers do not sum to 100 percent as table shows more than one question)	2023 (percentage) (answers do not sum to 100 percent as table shows more than one question)	2024 (percentage) (answers do not sum to 100 percent as table shows more than one question)	2025 (percentage) (answers do not sum to 100 percent as table shows more than one question)	Statistical difference 2025 compared with 2022
Ever experienced gambling	60%	48%	52%	59%	No significant difference
Experienced gambling in last 12 months	50%	40%	44%	49%	No significant difference
Spent money on gambling in last 12 months	31%	26%	27%	30%	No significant difference
Spent money on gambling in last 4 weeks	18%	13%	14%	16%	Significant decrease
Spent money on gambling in last 7 days	7%	5%	6%	6%	No significant difference

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Active involvement in gambling 2022 to 2025

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Last updated: 13 November 2025

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