Rutgers University warns 42% of 13-17-year-old Americans gamble

• Rutgers University has produced a new study in which it determined that more than 50% of those aged between 13 and 27 have been gambling in the past year
• The study established that 42% of those aged 13 to 17 have gambled at least once in the past year
• 40% of prediction market participants were classified as high risk for developing problem gambling

Rutgers University is sounding an alarm over the level of underage gambling in the United States, with 42% of children and adolescents between the ages of 13 and 17 having participated in some form of gambling over the past year.

Teen gambling is reaching serious proportions, study says

In fact, 11% of teen gamblers have been designated as "high-risk" players, or in other words, likely to develop a pathology as a result of their participation in these activities.

Over half (52.5%) of Americans aged 13 to 27 have gambled in the past year, the Center for Gambling Studies at the university has noted, with what is apparently a large percentage of these people coming from individuals who are too young to legally and safely participate in gambling activities to begin with.

In a statement detailing the issue, the university said: "We are living in a time where anyone can have a casino or sportsbook in their pocket. Now teens who should be playing sports are betting on them, often with family members."

The methodology relied on interviewing 1,677 Americans in the target age group (13 to 27), with more than 18.9% of those aged 13 to 17 gambling at least weekly, and therefore at the highest risk of developing a pathology.

Out of the full group surveyed, 20.7% participated in sports betting and another 18.4% in fantasy sports. Another 14% confirmed they used cryptocurrency trading and 12.9% resorted to high-risk stock trading, with another 8.5% in social casinos.

Prediction markets were represented in the survey, with about 6.6% of the total, and what was interesting was that 40% of this group was classified as gamblers at a high risk of developing a problem (the same as social casino players).

According to the survey, those affected by problem gambling were equally divided between boys and girls, 10.7% and 9.9% for each target group, respectively.

Black respondents also reported the highest level of gambling participation - 63.9%, with 17.7% of Black respondents and 12.8% of Hispanic respondents also experiencing gambling-related harm or addictive behavior, compared to just 6.4% for all respondents.

Being poorer also opens you to the risks of excessive gambling

Once again, Rutgers University established that financial vulnerability coincidentally pushed people into this type of behavior, with 30% of those who gambled and came from households earning less than $10,000 annually classified as problem gamblers.

In other words, minorities and people on a lower income are more likely to be pushed into gambling and to develop an issue as a result, with the study informing potential policies that could help prevent this.

However, the environment in which people grow up is equally important, with 75.5% of the age groups between 13 and 17 who showed signs of addiction also having a family member who gambled.

The study’s authors have urged the establishment of an overseeing gambling regulatory agency that can enforce federally mandated guardrails such as minimum standards, self-exclusion, and more, encompassing both online and land-based venues.

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