GAMSTOP has informed its industry partners of an increasing number of self-excluding persons under the age of 25.
The organisation behind the UK’s national self-exclusion service for online gambling has identified under-25s as the demographic most at-risk of developing problem gambling harms.
According to GAMSTOP’s statistics, a 31% rise has been noticed year-on-year for under-25s registering with the service during the latter half of 2024.
These figures signal that consumers aged between 16 and 24 now make up almost a quarter of new GAMSTOP registrants, while marking asharper rise than the 12% increase witnessed in the first half of 2024.
Fiona Palmer, CEO of GAMSTOP, commented: “The increase in the number of under-25s registering for GAMSTOP has become an accelerating trend, with a 31% year-on-year increase in the second half of 2024, following a 12% increase in the first half of the year.”
During the second half of 2024, GAMSTOP saw a 14% increase in self-exclusions, with major sports events such as the UEFA Euro Championships and the Paris 2024 Olympics being attributed to the increasing number of under-25 sign-ups.
In total, 532,484 people have registered with GAMSTOP since its launch in April 2018, representing over 1% of the UK’s adult population.
Regional statistics show that Hull saw the highest percentage of self-exclusion registrations, as an equivalent of 1.5% of the local population in the East Yorkshire city had signed up to GAMSTOP.
In what was the first time GAMSTOP has produced regional statistics behind self-exclusions, Hull was followed by Teesside and Sunderland as they both witnessed an equivalent to 1.4% of their population self-excluded with GAMSTOP, while Doncaster and Blackpool rounded out the top five areas.
Moreover, 48% of new registrants in the second half of 2024 opted for the maximum five-year self-exclusion period, showing that long-term self-exclusion is becoming more prevalent.
Following user feedback, the organisation has implemented a ‘five-year auto-renewal’ option into its services, allowing users to automatically be placed on another five-year scheme when their initial self-exclusion period comes to an end.