Youth Gambling

What is Gambling?

Gambling is when you risk something of value and you don’t know if you will win or lose. Not knowing if you will win or lose can also be defined as a game of chance that even with practice you cannot get better at.

Changing Landscape of Youth Gambling

While gambling used to be considered an adult activity, today more youth may gamble than adults.¹ As many as 50 to 70% of youth younger than 18 gamble for money at least once a year.²

In Ontario, Canada, the legal age to gamble is 19 and the legal age to buy lottery tickets is 18. ¹⁸ However, 1 in 3 students in Ontario (in Grades 7 to 12) gambled on at least one activity over the course of a year, and 1 in 6 students played free online gambling games more frequently.

Online gambling is especially popular among young people because of easy accessibility anywhere, anytime, privacy, extensive variety of games, possibility to play multiple games at once and persistent online marketing. The use of special effects, like graphics and music, and game-like elements, like scoring points and competition with others along with the opportunity to win rewards and take advantage of incentives, make online gambling feel exciting.

Some of the ways youth can experience gambling are through video games, freemium-model games, loot box unlocking, betting on Esports, skin-betting, daily fantasy sports, raffle tickets, arcade and fair games, claw machines and many more! New types of gambling have emerged with modern technologies, along with new types of online gambling like those related to video games and sports.

Young people have more opportunities to gamble than ever before. As a result, more young people are experiencing gambling problems.³

Click here to learn why it’s important to talk about gambling and youth.

Correlation between Gaming and Gambling

Gaming and gambling are very similar activities and the gambling industry even uses these terms interchangeably. The main difference between the terms is that for gaming, the outcome is achieved by skill, not chance; whereas for gambling, the opposite is true.

Many gaming activities now include gambling features and vice versa. These activities are referred to as gambling-like gaming and gaming-like gambling.

With the increase of technology and more youth having access to smart devices, there is more accessibility to gambling like games and gambling simulations. Studies indicate that 60% of Canadians and Americans played mobile games in 2020.¹⁶ If we look at an age breakdown of mobile game data, children (ages 2–12) make up 18% of mobile gamers (38.2 million) and tend to play games within the kid-friendly genre, which includes puzzles, arcade, action builder, and simulation.¹⁶ Our Jumping Jamboree game would be considered kid-friendly on the app store. Teens and young adults (ages 13–24) make up 24% of gamers (50.7 million), with 95% using a smartphone and enjoying a mixture of genres and prefer mobile games due to convenience and flexibility.¹⁶

This data indicates the prevalence of gaming among youth, and further research indicates the links between gaming and problem gaming. A significant relationship has been found between the frequency with which an individual engages in loot box spending and the prevalence of problem gambling.¹⁸ This research shows us a strong correlation between gaming and problem gambling, and illustrates the need for us to be talking about this with youth.

There can be a progression from video games to online gaming for money and gambling in social casino games. Social casino games look and work like games in a casino, but instead of playing for money the player wins points or in-game currency like coins or jewels. Sometimes players spend more to unlock special features or collect more points. Social gambling can impact the transition to gambling with real money, as it can create misinformation about how gambling really works. In social casino games, often there are better odds and inflated payouts for players. This means that players can develop a dissociation between action and consequence, and be more interested in playing similar-style games but with the possibility of winning a monetary prize.

How youth can protect themselves from harmful gambling

• Engage in other activities beyond school (sports, music, art, reading, writing, etc.)
• Use healthy coping strategies that focus on problem-solving
• Learn about the risks and behaviours most connected with problem gambling. (playing video games, gambling for excitement, etc.)
• Focus on building strong offline relationships