Experts say that young adults and even minors are gambling online increasingly despite industry safeguards. The rate of growth is an area of concern for parents, therapists, politicians, and local helpline workers who are noticing more underage and young gamblers coming forward with problems.
According to Vice.com, online gambling fever, particularly sports betting, is sweeping the nation and has become legal in 30 states with more to follow. Some states, like Connecticut, Michigan, and New Jersey have legalized online casino gambling as well.
While 21 is the legal age to bet on sports online, tech-savvy children can navigate the security features that often include two-factor authentication, verification of a user’s location, and Social Security number. Concerned parents have been reaching out to gambling helplines with increased frequency about their children. In Long Island, teens and young adults in their early to mid-twenties are now the number one demographic calling gambling helplines, according to workers.
Jeffrey Derevensky, a psychology professor at McGill University, who has studied youth gambling for decades, says this is unusual. “Young people,” he said, “typically don’t call helplines.” More teenagers have also started attending meetings of Gamblers Anonymous, says Vice.com.
While experts say that regulated online gambling is preferable to illegal or offshore gambling, it has also brought more people into the fold. A Rutgers University Center for Gambling Studies report on behalf of New Jersey’s Division of Gaming Enforcement found that only 40% of sports bettors in the state had been betting before legalization in 2018 by the Supreme Court, but almost half said they were betting more now.
The National Council on Problem Gambling estimates that the national risk for gambling addiction increased by one third between 2018 and 2021, and that a significant percentage of the rise is attributed to men between the ages of 18 and 24. The organization also found that 60% to 80% of high schoolers have gambled in the past year, and 14% to 19% either fit the criteria of having a gambling problem or are “showing signs of losing control.” Overall, high schoolers exhibit double the rate of gambling issues as adults.
Experts say that children have shown an ability to bypass safeguards and gain easy and anonymous access to family members’ account information. Derevensky said he spoke to a young man who had stolen two of his mother’s credit cards and then racked up $10,000 in gambling debt on each before the mother found out.
Unfortunately, the trend in youth gambling is on the rise and research shows that children who bet by age 12, no matter how seemingly harmless the wager, are four times more likely to develop a gambling problem down the line.
Experts encourage parents and teachers to have a dialogue with children about the risk of gambling. In Virginia, legislators unanimously passed a law that would require public schools to teach students about the potential dangers of gambling, like they do with drugs and alcohol.
Mike Sciandra, who works at Choices Treatment Center, an outpatient addiction treatment center in Nebraska, says that the difficult part of tackling the gambling problem is that it is increasingly hard to detect.
“A lot of our clients wouldn’t be caught dead in a casino,” he explained. “But they will be perfectly fine betting online on their phones at any time.”