According to a survey released by a non-profit educational advocacy group at the end of January, over one third of boys aged 11 and older in the United States have been involved in gambling; among 16 and 17-year-old boys, this proportion exceeds half. In mid-March, two state assembly members in California launched a proposal to protect young children from the harm of gambling addiction.
San Francisco high school teacher Kim Freudenberg’s son became addicted to online gambling at the age of 11, starting with video games and then moving on to virtual gambling websites, losing thousands of dollars and even ruining his college studies.
Timothy Fong, a clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA and co-director of the gambling research program, treated a 19-year-old patient addicted to mobile gambling. The patient said, “I spend five, six, or even seven hours a day on my phone, looking up information, placing bets, researching various odds, managing funds… and all of this is done lying in bed.”
In July of last year, Common Sense Media conducted a survey of 1,017 boys aged 11 to 17 across the United States, revealing that gambling has become a common behavior among young people. Video games, social media algorithms, and peer influence are closely related to boys developing gambling habits.
Jim Steyer, founder and CEO of Common Sense Media, stated in the preface of the survey report, “As parents, we are delighted to see children connect with each other through the internet, but we also have concerns, which are not unfounded as the data has confirmed.”
The report found that for current boys, gambling does not occur in traditional casinos or at tables, but rather lurks in sports betting and seeps into various games that boys already love, such as loot boxes and skin crates, blurring the boundaries between “gaming” and “paying” rewards mechanisms.
Skin crates are virtual items in multiplayer online games that allow players to randomly receive rewards such as heroes’ appearances (skins).
Furthermore, Steyer pointed out that gambling content is also mixed in various contents on social media platforms, inadvertently catching children’s attention in a continuous stream of feeds.
The survey included three categories of gambling and related activities – online gaming gambling, sports betting, and traditional gambling. Gambling related to online games often involves props and virtual currencies, which may not fall within the legal or academic definitions of gambling, but all possess risks, returns, and gambling characteristics, such as exchanging real money for random rewards, thereby subtly influencing boys.
Older boys are more likely to make gambling friends, raising the likelihood of their involvement in gambling to about 84%; whereas boys without gambling friends have only a 17% chance of participating.
Among boys engaged in gambling, nearly half (45%) have been exposed to online gambling. Of these, 59% were passively exposed through algorithm recommendations, 24% from peer sharing, and only 14% actively searched for it.
Those who are more exposed to online gambling also tend to have higher average gambling expenses (an average of $72 for the former and $33 for the latter). Watching content frequently also leads to overspending.
Over the past decade, changes in U.S. gambling policies, rapid expansion of online sports betting, and the integration of gaming and gambling on digital platforms have made gambling easily accessible in the lives of young people; due to their ongoing development, there is an increased sensitivity to risk preferences and reward mechanisms.
Steyer said, “This may be overwhelming, but the good news is that as parents, we are in an excellent position to help boys navigate through this wilderness full of variables.”
“You don’t need to be a gaming expert or monitor every click your child makes. Instead, you might ask your son to show you his favorite game, display curiosity about how the reward system works, understand which features require real money, and how your child copes when peer pressure arises to spend money.” Steyer believes that parents should start early conversations with their children, repeatedly discussing these topics to cultivate risk awareness before habits become deeply ingrained.
Steyer also advocates that the burden of protecting children should not solely fall on parents, but there should be some protective measures in place (such as age verification or restrictions, or banning promotions), along with establishing corresponding accountability. “We have learned a painful lesson from the rise of social media; we must not repeat the same mistakes in online gambling.”
In California, two state assembly members have introduced AB2617, the “Protecting Kids from Online Gambling Act,” which has not yet entered group discussion. Some feedback indicates that the bill is not entirely satisfactory; however, some parents believe that laws like this should have been enacted ten years ago.
Although California does not allow sports betting, it does permit users to legally trade contracts based on predictions of future events, such as sports events or political events.
One of the proposing assembly members, Mia Bonta, a Democratic state assembly member for the 18th district, said, “My son doesn’t need to actively seek predictive gambling, but they find him, find his friends, and package it as sports knowledge, appearing to be a fun way to make money — but fundamentally, they are gambling.”
Freudenberg’s son has returned to college after treatment, and this mother has created the grassroots group “Parents Standing Together” to help solve children’s gambling issues. She said, “Simply delaying a child’s exposure to gambling is already significant; it is also crucial to remove advertisements promoting gambling, so children do not think gambling is a fun, cool, and risk-free pastime.” ◇