KSA looks into gambling behavior in young adults - 41% of accounts opened at 18

• The KSA has analyzed several recent studies to help understand when young people first become exposed to gambling
• Many young people come into contact with gambling through social environments or adults who do not think the activity can be harmful
• The regulator will continue to analyze consumer behavior and specifically in young people who gamble

The Dutch Gaming Authority has taken a fresh look into consumer behavior in a bid to strengthen its understanding of what drives gambling habits, when they are formed, and if there can be more done to protect young and vulnerable individuals.

Dutch Gaming Authority takes a look at how young people interact with gambling

Specifically, the regulator focused on analyzing the behavior of young adults aged 18-24 in the three months after they registered with a licensed operator. The result is that the watchdog now has fresh data it can leverage to better protect this specific demographic and analyze common pitfalls.

The key finding of the new survey is that 41% of new accounts are opened by 18-year-old individuals, with the survey noting that those who reach the legal age are keen to try gambling right away.

One notable observation of the new assessment is that many people who register to gamble at 18 were actually exposed to or came into contact with gambling before they hit the legal gambling age, whether this is family members buying scratch cards for them or an adult setting them up with an online gambling account. This is based on a second study by Youngworks commissioned by the regulator.

Young people and adults often consider the activity to be harmless and lean into the social experience. While this still creates dangers later in life, the regulator also observes some positive behaviors among young people.

For example, young people consider gambling with an illegal operator to be a sign of potential problem behavior, but not the act of gambling itself. A third study still takes a look into gambling behavior among secondary vocational education and training students.

Nearly 30% of minor students gamble through various activities

While 68% of secondary vocational education and training students indicated that they avoid gambling and have not engaged in any such activity, there is still a significant number that do. According to the KSA, citing the study, 28% of minor students said they gambled in the past year.

The options they chose ranged from scratch cards and slot machines to bingo. The gambling regulator noted that for some young people, gambling remained a part of their social environment and was not necessarily perceived as risky.

The Dutch Gaming Authority has taken all of this with a grain of salt, while it has stated that it will continue to analyze gambling behavior in young people in a bid to strengthen its understanding.

In the meantime, the regulator has continued to mete out hefty penalties against offending operators, including a record fine worth €24.8m, raising doubt as to whether the watchdog can actually collect it.

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