UK youth gambling with own money falls to 26% as 89% still recall gambling adverts

Fewer 11 to 17-year-olds in Great Britain are gambling with their own money, and only a small minority are reaching age-restricted products. Advertising recall stays high, and the survey behind the figures faces renewed criticism days before Safer Gambling Week.

Fewer children in Great Britain are gambling with their own money, but gambling marketing still reaches almost all of them. The Gambling Commission published its Young People and Gambling 2026 official statistics on 12 November. The survey is based on 3,867 pupils aged 11 to 17. The share spending their own money on gambling in the past year now stands at 26%. That is down from 30% in the 2025 survey and 31% in 2022.

Most of that spending did not involve products legally restricted to adults. Only 5% had used their own money on age-restricted gambling products. The Commission uses the report to guide regulatory action. Ben Haden, its Director of Research and Statistics, said the priority was making sure children and young people cannot spend money on such products.

Advertising and loot boxes keep gambling in view

Exposure tells a different story from participation. Over the past year, the great majority of pupils, 89%, recalled coming across gambling marketing of some kind. Boys were more likely than girls to report seeing adverts on a range of platforms.

In-game spending adds to that exposure. Some 22% of all 11 to 17-year-olds had opened virtual loot boxes or surprise boxes with their own money. Awareness is wider still, with 82% familiar with some kind of activity involving items inside games.

Ygam chief executive Emily Tofield welcomed the drop in under-18 participation. She warned that gambling is still normalised from an early age through advertising and loot boxes.

The risk measures point to a small but distinct group. On the youth-adapted screening tool, 2.0% of respondents scored 2 or 3, which the Commission classes as ‘at risk’ gambling. Awareness of harm appears widespread. Some 81% of young people felt well informed about gambling risks. Another 68% had been spoken to by someone about the problems gambling can cause.

Survey method draws fresh criticism

The headline fall arrives as the survey’s method comes under attack. Critic Dan Waugh argues that pupils completing self-report questionnaires in class, among their peers, may give misleading answers.

His pre-publication analysis held up one implied result as implausible. The survey data implied that more than 32,000 British schoolchildren had played casino table games in casinos in a year. His analysis also pointed to inconsistent answers on advertising. A total of 228 children credited an advert with prompting them to gamble. Yet 125 of that group said they had spent nothing on gambling over the year before the survey.

The dispute matters because the figures feed directly into policy debate. They will shape arguments over age checks, advertising exposure and tougher rules for operators, suppliers and venues. A lower participation rate supports the case that existing controls are having some effect. High advert recall and loot-box spending give campaigners grounds to push for more. Doubts over self-reporting mean both sides will contest the numbers.

That debate moves straight into Safer Gambling Week, which runs from 16 to 22 November.

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