Australia’s Gambling Help Online reported a 16% increase in the number of young people seeking help in the 2022-23 financial year.
Australia has a highly regulated online sports betting market. It also has very limited online gambling outside of sport betting. Yet, Australia is dealing with a significant underage gambling problem.
A recent investigation by The Guardian Australia identified a significant increase in underage gambling, resulting in an increase in problem gambling among the very young. While the individual stories are gut-wrenching, it is the prevalence of the problem that is most alarming.
It’s easy for anyone with a debit card to access unregulated gambling sites – many of which market through video games and YouTube and TikTok videos. As a result, children as young as ten years old find it easy to gamble. Deakin University Professor Samantha Thomas, a public health sociologist, has spoken with thousands of young Australians and their parents about gambling. She found that children as young as eight years old can recall the content of gambling ads and have high gambling brand awareness.
A joint study between Federation University and the coroner’s court of Victory found that there were 184 gambling-related suicides between 2009 and 2016. Of those, 14 were between the ages of 17 and 24.
The US Has No Idea…
Most of the United States is new to legalized sports betting. Sports betting was illegal across most of the country until 2018 when the US Supreme Court overturned the ban. Since then, 35 states have legalized retail sports betting, while 25 states have legalized online sportsbooks. That means dozens of states are contending with regulation and responsible gambling issues for the very first time.
While states have earmarked a portion of their gambling tax revenue to fund regulation and responsible gambling, few know what that will entail – and what the costs of problem and underage gambling might be. For most states, responsible gambling was just a placeholder to get the, mostly, industry-drafted legislation passed. But there are clearly indications – even in the US – that underage gambling is already an issue.
In 2022, The New York Times reported that at least a half dozen colleges and universities had partnerships with online sports betting companies. Most of the partnerships involved advertising at campus locations. Some partnerships facilitated marketing online sports betting directly to students.
As a result, most universities and online sports betting providers terminated their relationships early. But the problem is bigger than a handful of university contracts. According to a recent study conducted by the NCAA, 58% percent of the 18 to 22-year-olds it surveyed, reported that they had placed at least one sports bet. Many of them were underage when they placed it – and many of them placed it in a state where sports betting was illegal. More than 5% of those who had placed a wager reported losing more than $500 in a single day.
But as Australia already knows, the problem of underage gambling starts even before college. The US National Council on Problem Gambling reports that between 60 and 80 percent of high school students have gambled for money in the past year. The group cited that the pandemic and easier access to online gambling have raised the risks for young adults. Between 4 to 6 percent of high school students are considered addicted to gambling, the group reports.
It is probably too late for the US to nip underage gambling in the bud. But it’s still early enough to develop responsible gambling best practices as the US industry learns and grows.
