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

To ask Her Majesty's Government, on the basis of Gambling Commission's research study, Young People and Gambling, published in November, what is the problem gambling rate for children and young people who gamble by (1) playing fruit machines in pubs, (2) online, (3) buying scratchcards, (4) private bets; and (5) cards with their friends; and how those rates compare with the problem gambling rates for adults in Great Britain.

The Gambling Commission’s Young People & Gambling 2018 report was based on a survey completed by 2,865 children in schools in England, Scotland and Wales. Of these, 37 children were identified as problem gamblers. The data was then weighted by gender, age and region. Where sample sizes for an age group were particularly small (for example, only 66 children aged 16 completed the survey, of which two were identified as problem gamblers) these children had large weights in the final dataset. Estimates about rates or numbers of problem gamblers should therefore be treated with caution.

Due to the small numbers both of children participating in any given gambling activity, and of problem gamblers identified by the survey, it is not possible to provide robust problem gambling rates on a per activity basis, including for those legally playing the National Lottery.

Of the 37 respondents identified as problem gamblers, 33 had on at least one occasion in the past 12 months spent their own money on an activity which is regulated under the Gambling Act 2005.