Gambling among young people decreases, suggests UKGC report

The UK gambling regulator, the Gambling Commission, released a new report, revealing details regarding the exposure and involvement of children and young people to all types of gambling. Titled the 2023 Young People and Gambling Report, the new white paper uncovered details regarding the involvement of young people and children in gambling, including common gambling products that are not age-restricted such as arcades or claw machines.

This year, similar to other years, the report collected data from 3,453 students between the ages of 11 and 16 years old. In contrast to previous studies, the 2023 Young People and Gambling Report collected data for the first time from 17-year-olds who attend independent and maintained schools as well as academies across England, Wales and Scotland.

According to the latest report that emerged last week, some 26% of the children and young people who participated admitted to spending their own money on some form of gambling in the last year. This marked a decrease when compared to the report released in 2022 that found some 31% of the participants admitted to spending money on some form of gambling in the last 12 months.

The recent report revealed that once the arcade gaming machines are excluded, only 4% of young people admitted to using their own money for gambling on age-restricted products. A comparison to the report released last year also showed a decrease, considering that in 2022, 5% of young people confirmed they used their own money for age-restricted gambling products.

A notable decrease was observed in the number of young people seeing gambling ads. The recently released report revealed that 55% of the survey's participants saw gambling ads, compared to 66% from the previous report. Similarly, 53% of the participants admitted to seeing gambling ads online, compared to 63% from the study released in 2022.

Judging by the report released by the Gambling Commission, some 0.7% of the participants in the study were identified as problem gamblers. On the other hand, some 1.5% of the young people were identified as at-risk gamblers.

A comparison year-over-year to the report released in 2022 showed a decrease in the percentage of problem and at-risk gamblers. The study from 2022 uncovered that some 0.9% of the young people were identified as problem gamblers while at-risk gamblers were 2.4%.

Among the gambling activities that are not age-restricted, arcade games were identified as the most popular in the 2023 Young People and Gambling Report. Some 19% admitted to spending their own money on claw crab machines and penny pushers among other arcade gaming machines.

The second most popular not age-restricted gaming product among children was wagering money between friends and family members with some 11% admitting to participating in such forms of entertainment. Some 5% of the participants admitted to playing cards with family or friends for money.

Image credit: Pixabay.com