Study Finds 43% of Children are Gambling, Many With Problems

Amid America’s explosion in gambling activity, a new study found that more than two in five children are likely to have engaged in a form of wagering.

Researchers at the Center for Gambling Studies at Rutgers University conducted the first benchmark study on youth gambling participation in two decades. The results were based on surveys from 1,677 U.S. adolescents and young adults, who were aged between 13 and 27.

More than half of all respondents claimed that they gambled in at least one form within the last year.

Children are gambling at alarming rates

The findings of the survey were not encouraging. 

The researchers’ estimates showed that nearly 43% of individuals aged 13 to 17 were likely to have gambled, despite the legal gambling age being either 18 or 21, depending on the state and form of gambling. The survey identified lottery, casino, online casino, sports betting, fantasy contests, lottery games, cryptocurrency trading, social casino games, and prediction markets as forms of participation that were classified as gambling.

Of even greater concern was that nearly 40% of individuals who said they had risked money when gambling said that they experienced a form of problem gambling. 10.3% also met the criteria for “high-risk gambling,” which relates to behavioral patterns and decisions or possible financial issues.

“We are living in a time where anyone can have a casino or sportsbook in their pocket,” said Lia Nower, director of the center, who led the study. “Teens who should be playing sports are betting on them.”

The findings are significant — Rutgers is nationally renowned for its training center for compulsive gambling counselors. Many of these individuals develop negative behavioral patterns when they are young and are unable to transition to making sound financial decisions before harm is endured.

More findings

One of the conclusions of the study was that the link between household exposure to gambling may be causing increased gambling rates for adolescents and young adults. Sports betting ads in particular have become extremely popular during television broadcasts, especially in sports, while casino, sportsbooks, fantasy, and prediction ads have flooded social media in recent years.

Additionally, individuals who witnessed a household gambling problem were over five times more likely to be labeled high-risk problem gamblers, according to the study.

Researchers used this information to send a warning to parents, educators, health professionals, and policymakers. Early exposure to gambling is spreading among youth, and that is accelerating the timeline for when individuals are participating in wagering — even if that is before the legal age.

“Gambling is no longer confined to casinos and lottery tickets,” Nower said. “It is increasingly embedded in video games, sports broadcasts, and other products young people can access. We have worried this would increase rates of problem gambling among youth. Now we know it does.”

One final troubling finding from the study was that players in lower-income households were linked to the highest rates of problem gambling. Nearly 30% of players from households that made less than $10,000 annually were at high risk for gambling disorders, while 22.8% from households making $10,000-20,000 were in danger.