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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate his Department has made of the number of problem gamblers aged 18 and under.

The Gambling Commission published its annual Young People and Gambling report in December 2017. This showed that the percentage of children who had spent their own money on gambling in the last week had fallen to 12%, from 16% in 2016. The drop in participation rates is statistically significant.

The results were based on a survey of 2,881 11-16 year olds in Great Britain. Of that 2,881, 0.9% (22 boys and 3 girls) were considered problem gamblers. Due to small sample sizes and changes in the population surveyed, this is not a statistically significant change from last year, which found a rate of 0.4%.

Protecting children and the vulnerable from being harmed or exploited by gambling is a core objective of the regulation of gambling in Great Britain, and a priority for the government. In October the government published a consultation on Gaming Machines and Social Responsibility across the industry. The consultation closed on 23 January, and we will consider all responses and publish our response and next steps in due course.