This research was designed to explore the gambling journeys and current behaviours of young people and understand their perspective on gambling during childhood. This research supplements our wider programme of work to understand the experiences of children and young people.

Key findings: 

• Engagement with gambling throughout childhood and early adulthood aligns to a familiar set of life events and milestones, such as family holidays, first jobs and increasing financial independence.
• Engaging with gambling or gambling style activities during childhood is common, but participation is primarily passive.
• Exposure to the positive and negative extremes of gambling (for example witnessing big wins or big losses, or being exposed to very positive or very negative attitudes about gambling) at an early age can lead to an increased interest in gambling in later life, and in some cases riskier or more harmful gambling behaviour.
• Friends and family played an influential role in shaping gambling behaviour, whilst advertising and marketing has less of an influence on young people’s tendency to gamble.
• Young people are most vulnerable to experiencing gambling harm after achieving independence from their parents and moving out of home.
• As people grow older gambling behaviour does not stay the same, rather it fluctuates according to personal (and peer) experiences of wins and losses, and alongside changes in lifestyle and responsibility.