UKGC survey shows declining trend in gambling participation within children

The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) today published the 2019 Young People & Gambling survey which looks at gambling trends of 11 to 16-year-olds in Great Britain. The survey looks at those forms of gambling and gambling style games that young people legally take part in along with gambling on age restricted products. 

The findings show that 11% of 11-16-year olds that took part in the survey say they have spent their own money on gambling in the past seven days, compared with 14% in 2018. The long-term trend shows a decline in participation since the questions were first asked in 2011. 

The most common type of gambling activity that young people are taking part in is private bets for money (e.g. with friends), at 5%, followed by a further 3% playing cards with friends for money.

The research, carried out by Ipsos MORI, also shows that 3% report buying National Lottery scratchcards in a shop in the past seven days and a further 4% say they have played fruit or slot machines in the past seven days, an activity which typically takes place in family arcades or holiday parks. 

Over the last two years, the UKGC has changed the methodology to ensure the data is even more robust and reflects changes in technology. Tim Miller, UKGC Executive Director said: “This report demonstrates that children and young people’s interaction with gambling or gambling behaviours comes from three sources – gambling on age restricted products and gambling style games. Any child or young person that experiences harm from these areas is a concern to us and we are absolutely committed to doing everything we can to protect them from gambling harms.”

“We have been raising awareness about where risks may arise from gambling-style games such as loot boxes and social casino games for some time. Even though we don’t have regulatory control in this area we are actively engaging with the games industry and social media platforms to look at ways to protect children and young people,” Miller added. “Protecting children and young people from gambling harms is a collective responsibility and requires us, other regulators, the government, gambling operators, charities, teachers and parents to work together to make progress.”

The survey shows 52% of young people say they have heard of in game items, of which 44% who say they have paid money to open loot boxes to get other in game items within the game they were playing, and 6% said that they have bet with in-game items either with friends or through unlicensed third party sites (so called ‘skins’ gambling). 

Over the past 12 months, 36% of 11-16 year olds say they have spent their money on gambling, down from 39% in 2018. 7% claimed to have gambled online ever, and 12% say they have played an online gambling-style game. 47% of those who played an online gambling-style game, did so through an app.

Earlier this month the Gambling Commission’s Chief Executive, Neil McArthur, set out clear expectations to the gambling industry about how he expects operators to use data to avoid targeting advertising at young and vulnerable people. According to the survey, 69% 11-16 year olds say they have seen or heard gambling adverts or sponsorship with 83% of that those saying that it had not prompted them to gamble. 11% of 11 -16 year olds say they have ever received direct marketing from companies about gambling.

Through the work of the National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms, the UKGC is developing a range of education and prevention programmes to put in place to protect children and young people. This includes partnerships with GambleAware and ParentZone who offer support for parents and guardians to help them deal with issues around playing gambling style games and gambling. The survey shows 74% of 11-16 year olds say they know who they would go to for help if they had problems with gambling.

Last year the Gambling Commission made a call to action to the pub industry, after test purchasing found that 88% of pubs in England failed to prevent children accessing 18+ gaming machines. Last week, the regulators called on the pub industry again to take faster action to continue to protect under 18’s from playing fruit machines in pubs. This year’s survey reports that of the 26% of 11-16 years olds who say they have ever spent their own money on fruit or slot machines, 11% did so in a pub, which is down from 21% in 2018.

On behalf of the Gambling Commission, Ipsos MORI carried out a survey among 2,943 pupils aged 11- 16 across curriculum years 7-11 (S1 – S5 in Scotland) using the Ipsos MORI Young People Omnibus. A total of 606 schools were selected, at random, from a sample frame of all Academies and Maintained secondary schools across Great Britain. 124 schools agreed to take part, giving a school response rate of 21%. Within each of these schools, one curriculum year group was selected, at random, and, within this year group, one class (two in four schools) was randomly selected and the pupils within this class asked to take part in an online self-completion survey. Fieldwork took place between 12 February – 19 June 2019.