Gambling: Children

(asked on 8th January 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate his Department has made of the number of problem gamblers aged 18 and under; and what steps he is taking to provide support for those people.


Answered by
Nigel Huddleston Portrait
Nigel Huddleston
Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
This question was answered on 13th January 2021

The Gambling Commission conducts an annual survey of gambling activity by 11-16 year olds, which uses screening questions adapted for use with adolescents to measure rates of problem gambling. In 2019 that survey found a problem gambling rate of 1.7%, which equates to around 55,000 individuals. Findings from the 2020 survey estimate a rate of 1.9%. However, the outbreak of Covid 19 halted fieldwork for the 2020 survey before it was finished, which meant that sample sizes were significantly smaller and no fieldwork was conducted in Wales. Results of the 2020 survey are therefore not representative of Great Britain, should not be compared to those of previous years and cannot be used to calculate numbers of individuals who are problem gamblers.

The most robust data on problem gambling rates amongst people aged over 16 is collected by the Health Surveys. In 2016, the combined Health Surveys found a problem gambling rate of 0.7% amongst adults in Britain, which equates to around 340,000 individuals. Amongst people aged 16-24, that rate was 0.6%. In 2018, the Health Survey for England found a problem gambling rate of 0.5% amongst adults in England, which equates to around 246,000 individuals. Amongst people aged 16-24, the problem gambling rate was 1%.

The first NHS specialist young person’s gaming and gambling clinic opened in 2019. In addition to treatment services, prevention work is underway to teach children about the risks of gambling and to educate those who work with children in identifying potential gambling related harm in young people. Since September 2020 teaching about the risks related to online gambling has been included in the Health Education curriculum, which is compulsory for pupils in state-funded schools. This is in addition to initiatives by third-sector bodies, including the PSHE Association’s resources to help teachers educate their pupils about the risks of gambling and how to avoid them, and the Young Gamers and Gamblers Education Trust’s (YGAM) training and tools for teachers, youth workers, mental health specialists and others who work with children and young people.

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