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.
Contents
- Executive summary
- 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
- Trends in gambling behaviours: 2022 to 2026
- 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 youth adapted gambling 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.
Eligibility for the DSM-IV-MR-J screen is based on whether a young person reported spending their own money on at least one gambling activity during the previous 12 months. It is not based on how frequently or how recently within that period they gambled. A young person may therefore report relatively low levels of recent participation while still being eligible to complete the screen and potentially meeting the criteria for a DSM-IV-MR-J classification. This reflects the purpose of the screen, which is to identify reported behaviours and experiences associated with gambling-related difficulties, rather than to measure the frequency or volume of gambling participation.
The eligibility criteria also do not distinguish between age-restricted and non-age-restricted gambling activities. Young people may be eligible for the screen after spending their own money on any of the 17 gambling activities included in the survey, including activities that are not age-restricted, such as playing arcade gaming machines or betting privately with friends or family. This is because the screen is intended to identify reported behaviours and consequences associated with gambling, rather than compliance with age-based legal restrictions. A young person may report the behaviours or consequences captured by the DSM-IV-MR-J regardless of whether the activity itself is one they are legally permitted to undertake.
The resulting classifications should be interpreted alongside information about the young person’s gambling participation and other relevant contextual measures. Young people within the same scoring category may differ in the number and types of gambling activities they report, the frequency and recency of their participation, and the particular criteria contributing to their score. A classification should not therefore be interpreted as indicating that all young people within that category have similar patterns of gambling involvement or experience the same nature or severity of gambling-related difficulties.
The DSM-IV-MR-J is a recognised youth-adapted screening instrument, rather than a clinical diagnostic tool. Its classifications are derived from young people’s self-reported responses and are not equivalent to a clinical diagnosis nor should it be confused with a measure of addiction. As the screening instrument was specifically adapted for young people and uses age-appropriate behaviours and scoring thresholds, findings are not directly comparable with the adult DSM-IV measure or the PGSI commonly used in adult surveys.
The number of young people classified as scoring 2 to 3 or 4 or more on the DSM-IV-MR-J is small and falls below the study threshold of 50 cases for subgroup analysis. Consequently, estimates for these groups are associated with relatively wide confidence intervals and a greater degree of statistical uncertainty. Any analysis of these groups by demographic or other sub-groups should be treated with particular caution and interpreted as indicative only.
The same caution applies if these findings are grossed up to estimate the corresponding number of young people in the wider population. Grossing up does not reduce the uncertainty associated with the original survey estimate, and the wide confidence intervals around these percentages would translate into potentially wide ranges around the resulting population estimates. Any grossed-up figures should therefore be presented as indicative estimates, alongside their confidence intervals and unweighted bases, and should not be interpreted as precise counts of young people.
DSM-IV-MR-J: Overall findings
A total of 0.9% of young people scored 4 or more on the DSM-IV-MR-J, 2.0% scored 2 or 3, and 23.1% scored 0 or 1. A total of 74.0% 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 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 2026 (3,867).
| DSM-IV-MR-J Youth Adapted problem gambling screen | 2026 (percentage) |
|---|---|
| Never have gambled | 74.0% |
| DSM-IV-MR-J score 0 or 1 | 23.1% |
| DSM-IV-MR-J score 2 or 3 | 2.0% |
| DSM-IV-MR-J score 4 or more | 0.9% |
Consistent with the decline in the proportion of young people spending their own money on gambling activities in 2026, the proportion scoring 0 or 1 on the DSM-IV-MR-J also fell, from 27.0% in 2025 to 23.1% in 2026.
However, the small proportion scoring 2 to 3 or scoring 4 or more on the DSM-IV-MR-J have broadly remained the same, as shown in Table 2.3.
Together, these findings suggest that the decline in gambling participation observed in 2026 was accompanied by an increase in the proportion of young people who report no gambling activity at all, while levels of higher risk gambling behaviour remained stable.
Table 2.3: DSM-IV-MR-J Youth Adapted screen 2025 to 2026
Types of gambling as defined by the DSM-IV-MR-J youth-adapted screen.
Base: All answering 2025 (3,666) and 2026 (3,867).
| Gambling category | 2025 (percentage) | 2026 (percentage) | Statistical difference 2026 compared with 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| DSM-IV-MR-J score 0 or 1 | 27.0% | 23.1% | Significant decrease |
| DSM-IV-MR-J score 2 or 3 | 2.2% | 2.0% | No significant difference |
| DSM-IV-MR-J score 4 or more | 1.2% | 0.9% | No significant difference |
| Never have gambled | 69.6% | 74.0% | Significant increase |
| Prefer not to say | 0.1% | N/A | No significant difference |
DSM-IV-MR-J: Demographic profile
There were no significant differences between boys and girls.
Table 2.4: 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 | 1,896 | 446 | 23.6% | 37 | 2.0% | 15 | 0.8% |
| Girls | 1,809 | 422 | 23.4% | 30 | 1.7% | 9 | 0.5% |
Young people who have seen members of their family gamble were comparatively more likely to score 4 or more in the DSM-IV-MR-J than those who had not (1.4%, compared with 0.4%).
Table 2.5: 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 | 1,278 | 380 | 29.4% | 48 | 3.7% | 19 | 1.4% |
| Not seen a family member gamble | 1,903 | 391 | 20.9% | 11 | 0.6% | 8 | 0.4% |
Reasons why young people gamble
Last updated: 12 November 2026
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