Approximately 450,000 children gamble every week according to shocking new report.
Almost half a million kids between the age of 11 and 15 bets at least once a week. This is one in six from the total number of youngsters. This is a bigger number than those who smoke or take drugs, and it is twice the number of the children who drink according to a report by the Gambling Commission. This suggests that while the numbers of the kids who drink or smoke have dropped in the recent years, the serious problem now is gambling.
Fruit machines, scratch cards, and playing cards for money are currently the most popular ways of gambling among the children.
However, some of them get lottery tickets, which their parents bought for them, or used arcades, bingo halls or betting shops. 3% shared that they gamble online with their allowance.
The UKGC estimates the total which is around 9,000 might be problem gamblers or even addicts.
There are approximately 20% of boys and 11% of girls who gambled in the last seven days, according to the report. Not to mention that boys also tend to bet twice as much. Almost 60% of the surveyed children understood the risk of gambling. However, one in four said that they do it anyway to win money. Around 23% stated that it was fun and around 21% used the word exciting.
The UKGC surveyed a total of 2,411 children from 103 secondary schools located in England and Wales.
