According to an annual survey of gambling compiled by the UK Gambling Commission, around 500,000 children are playing online betting websites using virtual money that can be turned back into real money.
The report, released by the Commission today, carries stern warning about what it calls "skin betting."
The Commission will prioritise taking action on the websites, which gives modified guns or knives within a video game known as a "skin" that can be sold for real money. The Commission had identified third party websites that enable the practice, with players alleged to be as young as 11 years old gambling their skins on casino or slot machine games and then turning the prizes into cash.
The CEO of the Commission, Sarah Harrison, has gone on record as condemning the practice: "Because of these unlicensed skin betting sites, the safeguards that exist are not being applied and we're seeing examples of really young people, 11 and 12-year-olds, who are getting involved in skin betting, not realising that it's gambling.
"At one level they are running up bills, perhaps on their parents' Paypal account or credit card, but the wider effect is the introduction and normalisation of this kind of gambling among children and young people."
Earlier this year, the Gambling Commission, for the first time, prosecuted people for running an unlicensed gambling website connected to a video game.
Today’s report from the Commission reveals that 12 per cent of 11-16 year olds spent thjeir own money on gambling in the past week, compared with 16 per cent in 2016. Similarly, it reported that 16 per cent had drunk alcohol and five per cent smoked cigarettes in the same period. They spent an average of £10 in a week. TV advertising was the principal method of becoming aware of gambling with 80 per cent but 70 per cent had been exposed to it on social media. The most common form of gambling was slot machines at four per cent, with private bets and National Lottery scratch cards at three per cent each.
Tim Miller, executive director at the Gambling Commission, notes in the report: “It is clear that many children’s experiences of gambling-style activities are coming from the playground, the games console or social media, rather than the bookmaker, the casino or the gambling website.”
