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
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- 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
Experience of gambling
This section of the chapter explores long-term trends between 2022 and 2026 in young people’s wider experience of gambling, including those who spend their own money. Across the 5 studies, levels of gambling participation have fluctuated from year to year. Participation declined between 2022 and 2023 and remained lower through 2024 before increasing again in 2025. The 2026 results indicate a return to lower levels across all measures of gambling participation and involvement. Taken together, these findings suggest that while levels of gambling involvement among young people varied from year to year, the overall direction of travel between 2022 and 2026 was downward, with significantly lower levels of gambling participation recorded at the end of the period than at the beginning.
As shown in Table 3.1, the proportion of young people who had ever experienced gambling decreased from 60% in 2022 to 55% in 2026. Similarly, the proportion who had experienced gambling in the previous 12 months fell from 50% to 45%. Measures of more active participation also declined over the period, with the proportion spending money on gambling in the last 12 months decreasing from 31% to 26%, and the proportion gambling in the last 4 weeks falling from 18% to 12%. Participation in the last 7 days remained comparatively low throughout the period, decreasing from 7% in 2022 to 5% in 2026.
Table 3.1: Wider experience and active involvement in gambling in 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026
Base: All answering 2022 (2,559), 2023 (3,453), 2024 (3,869) 2025 (3,666), 2026 (3,867).
| Wider experience and active involvement in gambling in 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026 | 2022 (percentage) (answers do not sum to 100% as table shows more than one question) |
2023 (percentage) (answers do not sum to 100% as table shows more than one question) |
2024 (percentage) (answers do not sum to 100% as table shows more than one question) |
2025 (percentage) (answers do not sum to 100% as table shows more than one question) |
2026 (percentage) (answers do not sum to 100% as table shows more than one question) |
Statistical difference 2026 compared with 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ever experienced gambling | 60% | 48% | 52% | 59% | 55% | Significant decrease |
| Experienced gambling in last 12 months | 50% | 40% | 44% | 49% | 45% | Significant decrease |
| Spent money on gambling in last 12 months | 31% | 26% | 27% | 30% | 26% | Significant decrease |
| Spent money on gambling in last 4 weeks | 18% | 13% | 14% | 16% | 12% | Significant decrease |
| Spent money on gambling in last 7 days | 7% | 5% | 6% | 6% | 5% | Significant decrease |
Summary Next section
Active involvement in gambling
Last updated: 12 November 2026
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