Rutgers study reports gambling rates among US young people

A study by Rutgers University's Center for Gambling Studies found that 42.7% of Americans aged 13 to 17 took part in some form of gambling in the past year, according to the researchers. About 11% of teenage gamblers were classified as high risk for problem gambling. The findings were published by the Center for Gambling Studies at the Rutgers School of Social Work.

The survey covered 1,677 Americans between the ages of 13 and 27. Of that group, 52.5% said they had gambled during the previous year. Weekly gambling was reported by 18.9% of the 13-to-17-year-olds, close to one in five, and these younger adolescents tended to favour bingo, raffles and skill-based games.

Female and male gamblers showed comparable high-risk problem gambling rates, at 10.7% and 9.9% respectively. Participation over the past year was highest among Black respondents, at 63.9%. Within the group that gambled, high-risk classification applied to 17.7% of Black respondents and 12.8% of Hispanic respondents, while the figure for white respondents was 6.4%.

The highest problem gambling rates appeared among people from lower-income households. Of gamblers whose households earned under $10,000 annually, almost 30% were high risk, and the share was 22.8% for those with household earnings of $10,000 to under $20,000.

Sports betting drew 20.7% of the full 13-to-27 sample, and season-long fantasy contests drew 18.4%. The report also listed cryptocurrency trading at 14%, high-risk stock trading at 12.9%, social casino at 8.5%, sports betting at 8.3% and prediction markets at 6.6%. High-risk problem gambling classification applied to roughly 40% of prediction market participants and 41% of social-casino players.

The study was led by Lia Nower, director of the center. In a statement, she said: "We are living in a time where anyone can have a casino or sports book in their pocket." She went on: "Now teens who should be playing sports are betting on them, often with family members."

Nower and her colleagues at the Center for Gambling Studies called for prevention education to start in middle school, so that teachers, students, parents and counselors receive evidence-based information on gambling risks. They further urged tighter oversight of newer gambling-like products, such as prediction markets and social-casino games, along with other activities that may escape conventional gambling safeguards.

Another proposal was a federal gambling regulatory agency that would set national minimum standards, among them national self-exclusion and other safeguards applying to players across online and land-based gambling. The researchers also wanted prevention and treatment funded where risk is greatest, through an office for problem gambling inside the National Institutes of Health working with community partnerships in low-income communities.