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An Irish study found that shielding kids from gambling is harder than ever, as childhood upbringing is becoming less of a factor in predicting problem gambling thanks to the proliferation of cultural exposure.
The study by the Economic & Social Research Institute (ESRI) examined gambling in Ireland. Approximately 1 in 30 Irish adults is estimated to be a problem gambler. The survey delved into the links between exposure to gambling as a child and how it predicted problem gambling as an adult.
The study also found that the links between underage gambling exposure and problem gambling are weakening in the under-40 crowd. They speculate that this may reflect wider childhood exposure to gambling, gambling ads, and gambling-like elements in video games.
In total, the online survey included 1,663 adults who answered all of the questions.
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Study Re-Establishes Well-Known Links Between Underage Gambling and Problem Gambling
The study found an unsurprising link between exposure to gambling as a child and participation in adulthood. Those who gambled as children were found to be twice as likely to have problem gambling in adulthood.
More than half of the adults surveyed reported gambling as children (64%).
Underaged gambling included contests among friends, and such activities as betting on horse races, bingo, lotteries, or card games.
The likelihood of problem gambling continued to increase in conjunction with more childhood exposure factors. Those who gambled as children and had parents who had positive views of gambling or gambled extensively themselves had a four-fold increase in the risk of problem gambling.
Wider Exposure is Weakening Links Between Underage Betting and Problem Gambling
The traditional links between upbringing and problem gambling later in life appear to be shrinking for adults under 40 years old. Researchers speculate that older generations often learned about gambling at home or not at all. Younger generations, meanwhile, find themselves exposed to gambling more often due to societal and cultural factors.
Gambling ads proliferate online and on television and are very easy for anybody to see. Children can be increasingly exposed to gambling ads regardless of whether their parents participate in it.
Doctors in a Canadian Medical Association journal pointed out how damaging gambling ads can be to young people:
I have seen people’s lives fall apart at all ages, from all walks of life, whether it’s an accountant with a career behind him, or a kid who’s just looking to maximize his college fund who then had lost it all within a matter of a few weeks.
Ireland’s government is working to mitigate gambling ads. The country’s regulatory authority implemented strict restrictions on gambling advertising in 2024.
As for exposure through gambling-adjacent video game mechanics such as loot boxes, the researchers suggested that these increase risk. But they acknowledged that “more evidence is needed” to measure their impact.
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