One child in every secondary school class has a gambling problem or is at risk of developing one, a watchdog has found.
A report by the Gambling Commission, published yesterday, showed that 3.5 per cent of children aged 11 to 16 — one in every 29 children — struggled with a betting addiction or showed signs of developing one. Problem gamblers were defined as children who gambled with “negative consequences and a possible loss of control”.
The study also revealed that more girls than boys now had a gambling problem after the proportion with a betting addiction tripled during the past two years. However, the Gambling Commission said this finding was not statistically significant.
