Last updated on November 12th, 2024
The United Kingdom Gambling Commission has released its Young People and Gambling Report for 2024, which aims to examine the extent of the involvement and exposure of young people and children in the world of online gambling.
This annual report is conducted between January and June. Moreover, in 2024, the report shows that 27% of young people have engaged in at least one form of gambling and spent their own money in a period of 12 months.
While this number is an increase when compared to 2023, when 26% of young individuals were reported to have spent money to gamble, it is still not as concerning as in 2022, when a whopping 31% of the youngsters in the UK reported spending their own money on gambling.
One of the few positives of this report is the fact that the most common gambling channels among young people in 2024 were legal and did not include age-restricted gambling services or products.
As per the report, the most common types of gambling among young people include playing cards with real money with friends and family (5%), betting on sports with friends or family (11%), and gambling on arcade game machines (20%).
Additionally, 21% of the young people involved in gambling reported engaging in gambling activities regulated by the Gambling Commission. Yet, this number dropped to a worrying 6% when the Commission excluded arcade gaming machines.
Speaking of illegal gambling channels, the report by the UK Gambling Commission showed that unregulated and illegal gambling among youngsters stood at 15%.
Another unease highlighted by the report is the concerning trend of the DSM-IV-MR-J Youth Adapted Problem Gambling Screen, which shows that 1.5% of young people have scored four or more on the problematic gambling behaviour scale.
This marks a rise from 0.9% in 2022 and 0.7% in 2023.
Tim Miller, the Executive Director for Research and Policy at the UK Gambling Commission, said that while the report does give accurate insights into the relationship between gambling and young people, it also shows that youngsters frequently tend to “gamble in ways that do not require regulation”.
Today’s report gives us important insights into the relationship between young people and gambling. Where it relates to regulated forms of gambling we use the data to continuously keep under review and, where needed, strengthen the suite of protections for young people that we require gambling companies to have in place. However, the report also shows that young people often gamble in ways that do not require regulation, such as betting with their friends. Yet these forms of gambling can also lead to some experiencing harm. Our report points to the opportunities that parents, schools and other groups have to also help reduce gambling harm among children and young people.
