UK youth gambling with own money falls to 26% as 89% still recall gambling adverts

Fewer children in Great Britain are gambling with their own money, but gambling marketing still reaches almost all of them. The Gambling Commission published its Young People and Gambling 2026 official statistics on 12 November. The survey is based on 3,867 pupils aged 11 to 17. The share spending their own money on gambling in the past year now stands at 26%. That is down from 30% in the 2025 survey and 31% in 2022. Most of that spending did not involve products legally restricted to adults. Only 5% had used their own money on age-restricted gambling products.