Ygam’s Impact Report Tracks Levy-Funded Youth Protection

Ygam has published its latest Impact Report, and the numbers show just how much ground the charity is covering with UK schools, universities and youth workers. The standout figure is 1.2 million young people reached in a single year, with the charity now crediting the new statutory gambling levy for helping it scale up further.

What’s been released

Ygam reached an estimated 1.2 million children and young people over the past year, with the UK-based charity highlighting the impact of the statutory gambling levy as it expands its prevention work.

Stand-out figures from the report include that the charity reached 1,196,604 children and young people during the period.

This number increases the organisation’s reach to more than 7 million individuals since 2020, according to its 2025-2026 Impact Report.

Some 658,768 were engaged through teachers and youth workers trained by the charity, while 107,750 were university students.

In the past year, Ygam trained more than 11,000 professionals working with children and young people.
The charity says this growth is directly tied to fresh funding:
Ygam has received £3m through the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities’ VCSE Gambling Harms Prevention and Resilience Fund, with the funding supporting education and prevention work between 2026 and 2028.

What’s changed

The report puts a spotlight on university life, an area Ygam has increasingly prioritised.
Gambling at university was a key concern, with 65% of students saying they had gambled in the past 12 months, and among those who gambled, the average reported loss was £50.33 per week, while 46% said gambling had negatively affected their university experience.

There’s also a clear gap between parental appetite for education and what actually reaches classrooms.
Ninety-one percent of parents surveyed expressed support for lessons on gambling harm in schools, however only 40% of parents reported that their children had actually received such education.
Where parents did take part directly in Ygam’s own sessions, the effect was measurable:
93% revealed that they were better able to recognize signs of gambling harm.

Perhaps the most notable shift for anyone watching the games side of the industry is Ygam’s growing focus beyond traditional gambling.
In response to evolving risks, Ygam has broadened its focus, and its Gaming and Esports program, launched in 2025, has already reached over 50,000 young people, educating them about potential dangers related to digital entertainment.

Additionally, Ygam benefits from the insights of those with personal experiences through its Lived Experience Advisory Panel and Youth Advisory Panel, with collaboration remaining a cornerstone of its strategy, involving partnerships with over 20 UK universities.

Where it fits

Ygam’s report lands at a moment when the statutory levy is starting to reshape how prevention work in Britain gets paid for, moving funding away from voluntary operator donations towards a formal, ring-fenced pot. For a market that’s used to hearing about levy money mainly in the context of research and treatment services, seeing it channelled directly into schools and universities is a useful reminder of where some of that money actually lands.

The charity’s push into gaming and esports is also worth watching. As loot boxes, social casino apps and skin-betting adjacent mechanics keep blurring the line between games and gambling, Ygam positioning itself in that space signals where regulators and educators expect the next wave of youth-facing concerns to come from, even as the wider UK-licensed casino sector continues rolling out new slots, live tables and app features aimed squarely at adult players.

Sources

• next.io – Ygam reaches 1.2m young people as gambling levy fuels prevention push
• GamblingNews – Ygam’s Harm Prevention Efforts Reach 1.2M Young People
• NewsNet5 – Ygam’s Expanding Impact: Preventing Gambling Harm Among Youth in the UK
• CasinoNoDeposits – Ygam 2025-2026 Impact Report: Reach and Training