Gambling Authority: ‘Gambling behaviour among young people continues to increase’
•
13 Nov 2024 •
Reading time: 2 minutes The British Gambling Authority has published a report on how young people deal with gambling and the figures are quite worrying. Between January and June 2024, they conducted a survey among young people aged 11 to 17. And what did they find? More than a quarter of them spent money on gambling in the past year.
27% of young people gamble with their own money
The research shows that 27% of young people spent their own money on gambling in the past 12 months. That is a lot of teenagers who use their savings. This percentage is similar to previous years: in 2022 it was 31% and in 2023 it was 26%. The most common ways that young people gamble are things like playing on slot machines (20%), a bet with friends or family (11%) and card games for money (5%). These activities are legal and have no age limit.
Problematic gambling behaviour on the rise
What is particularly striking is that more young people are exhibiting problematic gambling behaviour. The report shows that 1.5% of them scored 4 or higher on the test that measures how risky their gambling behaviour is. In 2023, this was still 0.7%, and in 2022 0.9%. This increase shows that more young people are struggling with gambling and its consequences.
Differences between regulated and unregulated gambling
The research also looked at the difference between regulated and unregulated gambling. Of the young people who gamble, 21% did so in regulated gambling activities that are supervised by the Netherlands Gambling Authority. If you exclude slot machines, this percentage drops to 6%. But there is also a large proportion (15%) who gamble without supervision, such as betting among friends.
Tim Miller on the role of parents and schools
Tim Miller, the executive director for research and policy at the Netherlands Gambling Authority, gave his opinion on the report.
“This report is a good example of how young people are getting involved in gambling. We are using this information to look at how we can improve the rules to better protect them.
But we also see that young people are often gambling in unregulated situations, such as betting with friends. This too can be harmful, and we need to encourage parents, schools and others to pay more attention to this.”
This week, Miller also spoke at the launch of the Gambling Harms Action Lab, a new three-year programme aimed at reducing gambling harm.