Young People and Gambling

The Young People and Gambling Survey 2020 has been severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic with data collection having to cease when schools closed in England, Scotland and Wales on 20 March 2020.

As of this date, 58% of planned fieldwork had been completed. Whilst the sample size is smaller than in previous years we still have a robust and representative sample of over 1,600 young people aged 11-16 in England and Scotland and we intend to release these results on the 5 November 2020.

The data will be representative of England and Scotland only, and not Wales which will limit comparability with previous years' data. To reflect the smaller sample size, we will not publish a full Young People and Gambling report in 2020. Instead, the data will be published in Excel data tables, with accompanying charts and text available on the Gambling Commission website.

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This report, published in October 2019, explores the gambling behaviours of young people aged between 11-16 years old in England, Scotland and Wales.

The survey is conducted by Ipsos MORI on our behalf.

Tell us what you think

If you have any feedback about this report or how it could be improved in the future, please take five minutes to complete our short survey.

Headline findings

11% of 11-16 year olds say they spent their own money on gambling activities in the seven days prior to taking part in the survey. This is down from 14% in 2018. 5% of 11-16 year olds say they have placed a private bet for money (e.g. with friends) in the past seven days, with a further 3% playing cards for money with friends in the past seven days. 4% of 11-16 year olds report playing on fruit or slot machines in the past seven days. 3% of 11- 16 year olds say they have played National Lottery scratchcards and 2% say they have played the Lotto (the main National Lottery) draw in the past seven days. 69% of 11-16 year olds say they have seen or heard gambling adverts or sponsorship with 83% of those saying that it had not prompted them to gamble. 1.7% of 11-16 year olds are classified as ‘problem’ gamblers, 2.7% as ‘at risk, using the DSM-IV-MR-J-screen. In 2018, 1.7% of 11-16 year olds were classified as ‘problem gamblers’ and 2.2% were classified as ‘at risk’. The 2019 results do not represent a significant increase over time.

This information is used alongside sales and other information to assess trends in illegal underage gambling.

If you require historical data you can contact us.