Key findings

• Gambling is highly visible in young people’s everyday lives — often without being recognised as gambling. Exposure through games, apps, social media, influencers, and advertising normalises gambling and masks risks, particularly for children and young people.
• Young people who gamble face a much higher risk of harm than adults. Although fewer 18–24 year olds gamble overall, those who do are more than twice as likely to experience serious gambling-related harms affecting mental health, relationships, money, and education.
• Gambling harms are unevenly distributed and often affect young people indirectly. Harms are more pronounced among young people from deprived backgrounds, ethnic minority communities, neurodivergent young people, and those with mental health challenges — and many are affected by gambling within their household even if they do not gamble themselves.