Report

Young People and Gambling 2026: Official statistics

Gambling Commission report produced by Ipsos on young people and their gambling behaviour, attitudes and awareness in 2026.

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Published
12 November 2026

Last updated
12 November 2026 - Changes

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Contents

• Young People and Gambling 2026: Official statistics

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• Executive summary
• • Introduction
  • Headlines
  • Survey strengths and limitations
  • Presentation and interpretation of data
  • Key terms used in the report
  • Acknowledgements
• Wider experience of gambling
• • Summary
  • Definitions
  • 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 experienced gambling
  • Being stopped from gambling for being too young
  • Gambling in the context of young people’s spare time activities
  • 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 youth adapted gambling screen
• Trends in gambling behaviours: 2022 to 2026
• • Summary
  • Experience of gambling
  • Active involvement in gambling
  • Trends in the youth adapted gambling 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
  • Impact on sleep
  • Impact on wellbeing
  • Impact on school attendance and relationships
• Gambling activities and gaming
• • Summary
  • Overall experience of playing games and gaming machines
  • Types of gaming machine played
  • Playing arcade machines in adult-only areas
  • Who young people were with in an adult-only area
  • Online gambling
  • Lottery play
  • Gaming
• Perspectives on gambling: Awareness, attitudes and behaviours
• • Summary
  • Feeling informed about gambling
  • Speaking to someone about gambling problems
  • Feeling informed about gambling: 2025 to 2026
  • Reasons why young people do not gamble
  • Young people who consider themselves risk-takers
• Appendices
• • Introduction
  • The DSM-IV-MR-J problem gambler screen
  • Research design
  • List of gambling activities and definitions
  • Questionnaire

Survey strengths and limitations

The findings in this report should be interpreted in light of the study’s strengths and limitations, as outlined on this page.

A major strength of the survey is the combination of a large, nationally representative sample and a methodology that has remained broadly consistent for approaching a decade. This consistency enhances the comparability of findings across survey waves and provides a strong basis for monitoring long-term trends among young people. However, the findings do not represent all young people aged 11 to 17 years, for example those who are not in mainstream education, those who chose not to participate and those who were absent on the day of the survey.

The online self-completion approach allows pupils to answer questions privately, without having to disclose potentially sensitive behaviours directly to an interviewer or teacher. This is intended to reduce social desirability pressures and encourage more candid responses. Pupils were also instructed to complete the survey independently and in silence, helping to reduce the potential for answers to be influenced by their peers. However, all findings remain based on self-reported responses and may be affected by factors such as recall error, misunderstanding of questions, different interpretations of gambling-related terminology, exaggeration or a reluctance to disclose certain behaviours.

As with all self-completion approaches respondents may provide answers that appear surprising, inconsistent or unlikely. For this survey, quality-assurance checks were undertaken at the sample-preparation, fieldwork and data-preparation stages to identify potential errors, incomplete responses and evidence that a respondent may not have engaged fully with the survey, including cases where reported gambling behaviour formed part of a wider pattern of responses indicating potential data quality concerns. Where responses did not meet the agreed quality assurance criteria, they were removed from the final dataset.

Potential data-quality concerns were considered across responses as a whole rather than on the basis of a single answer, as it is not possible to independently verify each young person’s responses. The findings should therefore be understood as estimates of young people’s reported experiences and behaviours rather than independently verified measures of their activity. Further information about the quality-assurance procedures is provided in the Appendices.

The study uses a detailed and largely consistent questionnaire, including the recognised youth-adapted problem gambling screen (DSM-IV-MR-J) screening instrument. Its repeated design provides a valuable time series through which changes in young people’s reported gambling experiences and behaviours can be monitored. However, changes to the questionnaire, response options, sample coverage or survey context can affect comparability between years. Where a measure is not directly comparable with previous surveys, this is explained in the relevant section of the report.

The DSM-IV-MR-J classification is derived from young people’s self-reported responses to a screening instrument. It is not a clinical diagnosis nor should it be confused with a measure of addiction, and young people within the same scoring category may differ in the frequency and nature of their gambling and the severity of the problems they report. Findings relating to these categories should therefore be considered alongside information about gambling participation and other contextual measures.

The results presented are estimates rather than exact measures and are subject to sampling variation. Although the large overall sample provides a robust basis for reporting findings for the survey population, estimates for smaller groups of respondents are associated with greater uncertainty. An unusual response has a greater influence on an estimate based on a small number of respondents than on an estimate based on the full sample. Estimates based on small groups are also likely to have wider confidence intervals and may vary more between survey years. Small differences involving these groups should not therefore be interpreted as firm evidence of a meaningful difference or change.

The survey can identify patterns and associations within the data but cannot establish cause-and-effect relationships. Any relationships discussed should therefore not be interpreted as evidence of causality. This applies particularly to findings about gambling advertising and promotions. Reports of being prompted to spend reflect young people’s perceptions and recollections, but do not establish that spending subsequently occurred or that exposure to advertising caused gambling behaviour.

The survey provides one source of evidence about young people’s gambling experiences, behaviours and attitudes. The results should be considered alongside other research, qualitative evidence, administrative data and relevant contextual information when informing policy or practice. Further information on the methodology, weighting, quality assurance and statistical significance testing is provided in the Appendices.

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Presentation and interpretation of data

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Last updated: 12 November 2026

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