Generation Alpha and Safer Gambling Week – a chance to speak the same language

As with all designated days or weeks that try to draw a wider, often passive audience to a particular cause, Safer Gambling Week is similar in its aims to stimulate healthy discussion and reflection on a topic with cut through at all levels and across all backgrounds in society.

Horseracing will certainly be visible in its support of the progress made by operators to improve and stress test their tools and early warning systems to protect and signpost  those for whom gambling has long since stopped being an enjoyable past time.  A stated increase in punter migration to the unlicensed black market further underlines the necessity for consistent and innovative approaches for all 52 weeks within which betting opportunities flow 24/7.

Upturn in lying and chasing losses

The recent annual report from the Gambling Commission (Young People and Gambling 2024: Official statistics) is a timely reminder of how gambling in all its forms is truly intergenerational. This year’s findings stated that 27% of 11 to 17-year-olds that participated had engaged in some gambling activity within 12 months. For the majority (the overall sample size being 3,869 drawn from schools across GB), legal arcade gaming machines were the favoured gambling destination of pocket money; wagering with family and friends and card games were next on the list of top activities. Online betting comprised just 2%, with a betting shop transaction at 1%. These numbers are on a par with the output of the 2023 survey. Percentages had also increased around some of the more worrying tends, however, such as taking money without permission and lying because of gambling; this was also the case about those thinking about gambling and chasing losses.

Encouragingly, the report also highlighted a 20% increase (to 51%) in participating young people feeling well informed about the risks of gambling, but perhaps that goes hand in hand with a strong return (near 70%) around questions of advertising recall.

Horseracing does not feature in isolation within the report, but this should not disguise the potential and opportunity for the sport to be a relevant source of information and support, for Generation Alpha in particular.

Racing’s inextricable link with gambling

The sport has worked effectively both within its own corridors of power and as a combined lobby with operators to the Gambling Commission, Government and a range of cross-party representatives. The common enemy has been the creep and legislative threat of affordability checks, while the cause is quantified through an estimate of potential lost revenues to the sport.  An acknowledgement of those currently struggling with gambling-related harm and the vulnerability of others has accompanied this campaigning but is that enough from the only sport for which betting is a lifelong financial surrogate?

An understandable nervousness exists around engaging young people on betting topics until the law steps aside and 18-year-olds are free to wager regardless of their level of understanding. There is no apprenticeship to complete or L plates to wear that might offer some guardrails as healthy habits are established.

For over a decade, Ygam (Young Gamers & Gamblers Education Trust) has worked with schools, parents, health professionals and operators with the mission of awareness raising, education and research to safeguard young people against gaming and gambling harms. Ygam’s work has evidenced a clear need for knowledge transfer and open discussions to create resilience around these topics.

There seems wide consensus that for all the unarguable wonders of the digital age, its snapshot threads and reels carry a full fibre challenge for young people unnurtured by the stabilisers and oversights of a bygone analogue life. Ephemeral experiences are the currency of so much interaction, which of itself may not create a poor legacy if a wider context and scaffold exists.

Racing’s vacuum in a noisy world

So, what’s that to racing? Well, perhaps an opportunity to play a meaningful, visible role in supporting its future customers, investors and workforce before they’ve even decided on GCSE options. Gen Alpha (born 2010-24) will decide racing’s direction one day and an early and healthy relationship with the multifaceted concept of gambling can only be mutually beneficial. For racing to lead a long-term intervention and replace its current vacuum should not be misconstrued as promoting gambling or recruiting bettors. A commitment to offer an informed and legitimate voice is a differentiation from other sports and organisations that also offer education and help in a very noisy space.

Safer Gambling Week provides a good step off point for racing to claim a stake in this area of work – with communication that reaches beyond the small minority of young people that enter the workforce and become beholden to licensing requirements and restrictions that govern such activity. How much better prepared might these future colleagues and their dispersed peers be if racing had facilitated just one valuable conversation or insight that stuck, and made a difference.

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