2020 Young People and Gambling Survey

The Gambling Commission has today published the results of the 2020 Young People & Gambling survey carried out by Ipsos, which looks at gambling trends among 11-16 year-olds.

Key findings include: 

• 9% of 11-16 year olds in England and Scotland spent their own money on gambling activities in the seven days prior to taking part in the survey.
• Respondents were most likely to have placed a private bet for money (5%) or played cards for money with friends (3%) in the past seven days.
• 37% of 11-16 year olds in England and Scotland have gambled in the last 12 months.
• Half (50%) of 11-16 year olds in England and Scotland have ever gambled, of which 51% of these respondents were with their parent or guardian the last time they gambled.
• 1.9% of 11-16 year olds in England and Scotland are classified as ‘problem’ gamblers and 2.7% are classified as ‘at risk’ according to the DSM-IV-MR-J screen.
• 58% of 11-16 year olds have ever seen or heard gambling adverts or sponsorship, of which 7% said this had prompted them to gamble when they weren’t already planning to.

More detailed findings can be found on the Gambling Commission website.

Technical note

1. On behalf of The Gambling Commission, Ipsos carried out a survey among  1,645 pupils aged 11- 16 across curriculum years 7-11 (S1 – S5 in Scotland) using the Ipsos Young People Omnibus. A total of 349 schools were selected, at random, from a sample frame of all Academies and Maintained secondary schools across Great Britain. At the point fieldwork was forced to close due to lockdown, 40 schools had taken part. Within each participating school, one or two curriculum year groups was selected, at random, and, within these year groups, one class was randomly selected and the pupils within this class asked to take part in an online self-completion survey.  Overall, fully completed questionnaires were completed by 1438 pupils across 76 class groups in England; and by 207 pupils across 14 class groups in Scotland.  Fieldwork in Wales had not begun when the lockdown measures were imposed, which means no pupils in Wales completed the 2020 survey.
2. Fieldwork took place between 27 January and 20 March 2020, when national lockdown measures closed schools and forced fieldwork to close.  
3. The data have been weighted by age of pupil, gender and region to provide a representative sample of pupils in curriculum years 7-11 (S1 – S5 in Scotland).
4. Within the survey, ‘gambling’ covers the activities listed below. Young people were asked to consider whether they spent their own money on these activities in the last 7 days, 4 weeks, 12 months or more than 12 months ago:
   1. Lotto (the main National Lottery draw)           
   2. National Lottery scratchcards which you bought in a shop (not free scratchcards)
   3. National Lottery instant win games on the internet (e.g. National Lottery Gamestore)
   4. Any other National Lottery games (e.g. EuroMillions, Thunderball, Hotpicks)
   5. Other Lotteries (e.g. The Health Lottery, People’s Postcode Lottery, or other smaller lotteries available in shops)
   6. Fruit or slot machines (e.g. at an arcade, pub or club)
   7. Placing a private bet for money (e.g. with friends)
   8. Playing cards for money with friends
   9. Bingo at a bingo club  
   10. Bingo at somewhere other than a bingo club (e.g. social club, holiday park, etc.)
   11. Personally visiting a betting shop to play gaming machines
   12. Personally placing a bet at a betting shop (e.g. on football or horseracing)
   13. Personally visiting a casino to play casino games
   14. Gambling websites/apps where you can win real money (e.g. poker, casinos, bingo, betting on sport or racing)
   15. Any other gambling
5. For further information journalists should contact the Gambling Commission press office on 0121 230 6700 or email: [email protected]