VPNs, Gambling Sites and Young People in Great Britain

VPNs are already familiar to many teenagers in Great Britain. A new Gambling Commission survey found that 76% of the 11 to 17-year-olds it questioned had heard of them.

The more eye-catching number is 13%. That was an estimate of how many respondents believed people their age had used a VPN to reach betting apps or gambling websites. The researchers were not measuring how many young people had done it themselves.

Who was surveyed

Yonder surveyed 1,020 young people aged 11 to 17 for the Gambling Commission. The online fieldwork ran from 30 April to 5 May 2026.

Among the findings:

• 76% had heard of VPNs
• 36% said they knew how VPNs worked
• 13% was the estimated share who believed people their age had used one to access betting apps or gambling websites

Awareness rose with age. It was 61% among 11 and 12 year olds and 89% among 16 and 17 year olds. Boys were more likely than girls to say they had heard of VPNs.

Friends were the most common source of awareness among those who already knew about VPNs, at 42%. Family was next at 37%, followed by YouTube and TikTok at 36%.

Where the 13% comes from

The researchers used a list experiment for the gambling question.

Half the sample saw a list of things that people their age might have used a VPN for. The other half saw the same list with one extra item about accessing betting apps or gambling websites.

Nobody had to say which individual items they thought applied. They only gave the number. The difference between the two groups was used to estimate perceived gambling-related VPN use.

The estimate was 19% among 16 and 17 year olds, 20% among respondents who had already heard of VPNs and 2% among 11 and 12 year olds. Those subgroup estimates are based on smaller samples and are less precise.

VPNs and gambling access

A VPN sends internet traffic through another server. A website may then see a different internet address or apparent location.

That can get around some forms of geoblocking, but it does not make every other check disappear. Gambling operators may still use age and identity checks, payment information, account details and device signals.

The Gambling Commission has also said that VPN use makes some illegal gambling activity harder to measure because traffic from Great Britain can appear to come from elsewhere.

A VPN does not change a site's licence status. Someone in Great Britain who reaches an overseas or unlicensed gambling service may be dealing with different rules for withdrawals, complaints and identity checks.

If a site claims to be regulated in Great Britain, use our gambling licence guide to check the operator and domain. Our guide to offshore gambling risks explains what can change when a site sits outside the British system.

Talking to a young person about VPN use

There are ordinary reasons to use a VPN. Government research published in July 2026 found young people using them for privacy, public Wi-Fi, travel and access to restricted content, among other things.

Seeing a VPN on a phone or laptop is not evidence that somebody is gambling. A more useful conversation is about the sites and services being accessed, whether the young person knows who runs them and what happens to any personal or payment information they provide.

Network filters, app settings and blocking software can make access harder. None is a complete barrier.

Limits

The survey used a non-probability online panel. It was designed to reflect the population by age, gender and region, but it was not a random sample of every young person in Great Britain.

Researchers did not inspect browsing histories, operator records or payment data. They could not establish how many respondents had personally used a VPN for gambling, whether an attempt to reach a site had worked or whether any money had been staked.

Taken on its own, the 13% figure is easy to misreport. It estimates what respondents thought their peers were doing. It does not show that one in eight young people gambles through a VPN.

This article was reviewed by the GamRight editorial team on 21 August 2026. It explains published research and does not assess an individual young person or provide legal advice. Please use our contact page to report a factual error or request a correction.