WE ANALYSE | UK: Gambling Commission presents contradictory data on minors after tightening regulation
INFOPLAY compares the Gambling Commission's statement with the tables in its 2025 and 2026 official reports.
An INFOPLAY review of the Young People and Gambling 2026 report reveals a contradiction in the statistics released by the Gambling Commission. The British regulator claims that 74% of minors have never gambled, while its own study states that 55% have ever participated in gambling activities. The discrepancy comes after two years of regulatory tightening and raises questions about the public presentation of the results.
The Gambling Commission published on November 12 the results of a survey carried out by Ipsos among 3,867 students aged 11 to 17 in England, Scotland and Wales.
Among the main findings, the statement highlights that 74% of minors have never gambled, compared to 69.6% the previous year, and presents this evolution as a statistically significant decrease in participation.
However, the full statistical report offers a different classification:
55% of young people have participated in gambling activities at some point.
45% have done so during the last twelve months.
26% have spent their own money on gambling during that period.
Therefore, 74% correspond to minors who have not spent their own money on gambling activities during the last year, which does not mean that they have never gambled.
The discrepancy is not limited to the press release.
In the section dedicated to the DSM-IV-MR-J questionnaire, used to identify behaviors related to problem gambling, the document itself explains that 74% of the participants had not actively gambled with their own money during the last twelve months.
However, Figure 2.3 and its corresponding table classify this percentage as "Never have gambled".
INFOPLAY has verified that this same classification already appeared in the 2025 report, when 69.6% were identified as minors who had never gambled, despite the fact that that study placed the proportion of young people who had participated in gambling activities at some point at 59%.
The publication coincides with a period of significant restrictions and new obligations for operators.
In August 2024, increased age verification requirements in face-to-face establishments and financial vulnerability checks came into force. In May 2025, new conditions on commercial communications and betting limits on online slots of £2 for players aged 18 to 24 and £5 for those aged 24 and over began to apply.
In January 2026, new restrictions on promotions came into effect, including a ban on combining different gambling products into the same incentive and a ten-fold limit on bonus wagering requirements.
In June, in addition, an advertising surveillance initiative was launched using artificial intelligence to detect gambling content that is particularly attractive to minors.
These measures are part of a regulatory reform involving the Gambling Commission, the British Government and advertising self-regulatory bodies.
The results do reflect a decrease in youth participation.
Between 2025 and 2026, the proportion of minors who had ever participated in gambling activities rose from 59% to 55%. Participation over the last twelve months fell from 49% to 45%, while spending with own money fell from 30% to 26%.
However, the report itself warns that the survey does not allow for cause-and-effect relationships.
In addition, many of the restrictions introduced affect adult players and most of the gambling reported by minors corresponds to activities that are legal for their age or not subject to specific restrictions.
The study also notes that 89% of young people remember being exposed to gambling advertising, while 5% admit to spending money on age-restricted products.
The Gambling Commission acknowledges that it uses this research to guide its regulatory decisions. However, the results do not show that the new restrictions have led to a decline in youth participation.
The contradiction detected between the statement and the official statistics also does not make it possible to determine whether it is a presentation error or a deliberate interpretation of the data.
What is verifiable is that the regulator uses the expression "They have never played" for a category that, according to the study's own methodology, means not having spent their own money on gambling during the last year.
