Gambling

(asked on 23rd November 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 information her Department holds on the change in problem gambling rates between 2015 and 2020 among those aged between (a) 11-18, (b) 19-25, and (c) 26-35.


Answered by
Chris Philp Portrait
Chris Philp
Minister of State (Home Office)
This question was answered on 26th November 2021

As set out in Public Health England’s evidence review on gambling-related harms, the estimated overall problem gambling rate for England was 0.5% in 2018, and has been stable at this rate since 2012. This estimate was drawn from the Health Surveys conducted in 2012, 2015, 2016 and most recently in 2018. The problem gambling rates for those aged between 16-44 years old in the 2015 combined Health Survey for Great Britain and the 2018 Health Survey for England were as follows:

16-24

25-34

35-44

Combined Health Survey for Great Britain (2015)


1.1%


1.4%


0.9%

Health Survey for England (2018)

1.0%

0.9%

0.6%

To supplement the Health Surveys, the Gambling Commission carries out a quarterly survey by telephone which includes a shortened problem gambling screen. For the year to December 2020 this estimated a problem gambling rate of 0.3% (estimated at 0.5% in 2015). The problem gambling rate among 16-24 year olds was 0.5%, among 25-34 year olds was 0.2% and 35-44 year olds was 0.8%.

The Gambling Commission’s Young People and Gambling Report has measured gambling behaviour in children since 2014, including problem gambling using an adapted screen. The data is not directly comparable over the period as the sample group has changed from 12-15 year olds in England and Wales (2014-16) to 11-16 year olds in England, Scotland and Wales, and there have also been changes to the survey methodology. In 2015, the Commision found the problem gambling rate among 12-15 year olds in England and Wales was 0.6%. In 2019, the last year for which the survey has been based on complete data, the rate for 11-16 year olds in England, Scotland and Wales was 1.7%.

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