Underage gambling – where next?
The online gambling industry is growing right across the world. In the EU it’s expected to reach €149.2 billion by 2029. In the US it reached over $71.92 billion in 2024. With the growth of legal online gambling come some unwanted side effects – one of which is underage gambling, which is seemingly on the rise across many major markets.
What’s the scale?
Most countries around the world restrict gambling to over 18s, including most of Europe, as well as Australia. In the US and Greece you must be 21.
Limits on young, but legal, gambling are much less widely enforced. The UK is a leader, enforcing a £2 per spin slots limit for gamblers aged 18-24. The Netherlands caps monthly deposits 18-25s can make at €300.
How many young people are we talking about?
Statistics on underage gambling vary hugely from country to country, but on the whole, they’re higher than you would hope.
- In the US, a 2018 review by the National Council on Problem Gambling reported that more than 75% of students gambled.
- In Spain, a 2024 ESTUDES study found nearly one in five students gamble.
- In the UK, around 1.5% of young people (11-17) are reported to be problem gamblers.
- In Australia, around 34% of 12-19 year olds engage in gambling, according to a report by The Australia Institute.
How much are they wagering?
Statistics on the actual spend for underage gambling are slim – after all, no casino or sports betting operator should actually be allowing it! However, a study by the Australia Institute estimates national yearly underage gambling spend to be around AU$18.4m.
The total spend on wagering for the whole country is AU$244.3bn, so it is a relative drop in the ocean, but we should remember it’s a figure that shouldn’t exist at all.
Gambling is heavily entrenched in Australian culture to a degree that would surprise many Europeans. The average annual spend/loss per Australian is nearly 3 times higher than the average Briton and over double that of an an American or New Zealander.
Underage gambler today, problem gambler tomorrow?
There are at least 4 studies mentioned in a report on underage gambling, that suggest adults with problematic gambling behaviours are more likely to have gambled whilst underage.
One study delved into the Spanish 2015 survey on gambling and found that those who started gambling before turning 18 were more likely to be identified as having problematic gambling behaviours in adulthood.
The next question is why. Is it because people who began gambling under 18 were innately more prone to addictive behaviours, or was it because of their early gambling that they ‘graduated’ into problem gambling?
Is a young person gambling at a moderate level a problem?
No: As long as they’re of legal age, gambling at a moderate level (i.e. a level that doesn’t cause harm) shouldn’t be viewed as a problem. They’re of legal age and their behaviour isn’t causing harm – it’s fine.
Yes: Up until the age of around 25, the prefrontal cortex is still forming – that’s the bit of your brain most closely associated with risk taking behaviours. Are we setting up this part of the brain for greater risk taking behaviour by allowing any risk taking behaviours, no matter how moderate?
What are the regulators doing?
Regulators in many countries have taken steps to counteract the negative impact of young people gambling – some of the most recent are detailed below.
In the Netherlands a ban on gambling sponsorships of sports teams began in July this year, with the hopes it will be less visible, particularly to young people.
In the UK, online slot stakes were cut to £5 for adults and £2 for 18-24s this year. This age band was chosen because that age group was said to be at higher risk of harm and have lower disposable income.
In Australia, there are tight controls over advertising and school-based programs on the dangers of gambling.
Gambling advertising is often called out as the culprit for problem gambling behaviours in young adults, but for many young adults, or even children, gambling starts amongst friends and family.
In the UK Gambling Commission's 2024 Young People and Gambling Report, the top three ways that children (11-17 year olds) gambled were all legal and none of them would be affected by a gambling advertising ban:
- Arcade machines (20%)
- Betting between family and friends (11%)
- Playing cards for money with family and friends (5%)
Pragmatic approach; manage as opposed to combat?
Young people have always done things reserved for older people. In the UK in 2023, 62% of 15-year-olds reported having drunk alcohol. In Spain, 76% of secondary school students had consumed alcohol in the past year.
Some parents believe allowing their teen a small glass of wine with dinner will help them to manage their drinking more effectively later – others believe it should be strictly avoided until legal age. But crucially, a huge proportion of young people do it anyway.
Taking a seatbelts and speed limits approach, by introducing safety measures, without trying to stamp out gambling entirely might be a better approach.
How do we teach sensible or measured gambling habits to young people?
If we accept that we can’t stamp out underage gambling altogether, then it becomes clear that trying to prevent young people from ever seeing or hearing about gambling is pointless. In fact, enshrouding gambling in mystery might only make it more appealing.
In Victoria, Australia, a state run program called ‘Be Ahead of the Game’ aims to separate the love of sport from the love of sports betting. In the UK, YGAM and GamCare deliver age appropriate lessons for high school age children. These lessons focus on understanding odds, as well as ways to respond to social pressure and information on where to go for help.
Having these relatively new ‘buffer zones’, around 18-24, where young people can gamble but with some additional limits is a sensible idea. While they are still developing and understanding their own risk taking behaviours, having ‘training wheels’ is helpful.
Ways to address the issue of young people gambling
Some of the tactics used by governments and charities are already working. For instance, the UK’s approach has seen a 0.2 to 0.9% fall in problem gambling amongst young people, but are there other ways to tackle the problem?
Here’s what I think:
Explain the odds – thoroughly
Understanding odds is, for me, the single largest factor in the formation of my healthy gambling habits. I grew up in a family who gambled, I watched them experience big wins – and sometimes big losses.
Unpicking the vigorish in sports bets, understanding house edge, discovering the terrible RTP of the lottery. All of this dramatically reduced my inclination to gamble.
If we taught young people that the odds are in fact stacked against them, even in games of skill, or sports wagers, would they be so inclined to gamble? If education is the solution to alcohol and drug use then why can’t it be the solution (or at least part of it) for problem gambling?
Young gamblers, any gamblers in fact, need to remember that it should be fun; a game. The odds, long-term, are stacked against them and it’s not a way to make money. It’s the occasional big win, or even smaller wins, that make it exciting
Show gambling harms
For many young people, the harm caused by problem gambling is a little too abstract. On cigarette packets we see the scarred lungs of lifetime smokers, they might see their friends a bit too drunk and think twice about doing it themselves. But, the people suffering from gambling related harm? They aren’t so visible.
I’m not suggesting ‘scared straight’ programs! But, for young people to be able to interact with someone who’s suffered first-hand from gambling related harms might provide more concrete proof or context. It brings them closer to the problem, preventing them from thinking that gambling addiction is something that only happens to other people.
Don’t forget the black market
Gambling legislation is largely very good in many countries – but variable in others. A lot of time and money is spent on ensuring that gambling isn’t advertised to children and certainly isn’t made available to them. However, it’s impossible to prevent young people from gambling at unlicensed sites. Continuing to crack down on black market casinos is essential for any change to have a positive effect.
Final words
Some governments seem to believe that by entirely shielding young people from gambling, they’ll be able to prevent them from doing it. Instead, it might simply be setting them up to not understand the risks associated. Prevention is better than cure, and here, we should be preventing problem gambling, rather than preventing gambling full stop.
By educating young people properly on what the odds really are, and what the dangers are as well, we might put them off gambling entirely, but if not, we can at least set them up to experience fewer gambling related harms.