The Growing Concern of Online Sports Betting and Gambling Addiction Among Young Adults

The offer of online sports betting is practically endless. When you open any page, thousands of events are offered to gamble your money and try to make a profit. Every day, at all hours, on any device. These access facilities open the doors to the development of gambling problems which, in the case of the population group between 18 years and 25 years old, affect 12% of those who gamble, according to the Gambling prevalence study 2022-2023prepared by the General Directorate for the Regulation of Gambling and of which some data has been advanced this Friday, although the full report will be released on Monday.

The profile of the betting player who accesses treatment centers has changed in the last decade, according to the technical director of the Spanish Federation of Rehabilitated Gamblers of Chance (FEJAR), Juan Lamas, who explains that “mostly they are 20-year-old men.” hooked on “online sports betting or ONCE scratch cards”. In fact, according to the progress of the report, a third of those under 25 years of age (36.5%) have bet online in the last year.

The Minister of Consumer Affairs, Alberto Garzón, has expressed his concern about the “special vulnerability” of this age group. “There are groups of young people who gather in game rooms as if it were a risk-free recreational activity, as a way of socializing,” Garzón warned.

One of the alarms that worries both the ministry and FEJAR is the access of minors to video game loot boxes, in which rewards and improvements are offered to progress in the game in exchange for money. The practice is not illegal, since it does not fit within the game of chance. 24% of young people between 15 and 17 years old have access to them, a fact that worries Lamas due to the “bet and win mentality” that it generates in them. “Some of the addiction cases that come to FEJAR tell us that they started losing money with video games,” says Lamas.

The study, which analyzes data from some 20,000 questionnaires carried out between October 2022 and June 2023, reflects that 49% of the population has bet on some type of game in the last year. Slot machines (52%) and roulette (32%) are the ones that generate the most symptoms of problems when played online.

Legislation

To combat gambling addiction, the Council of Ministers approved a Royal Decree in November 2020 in which online gambling advertising was limited to early morning hours and sports sponsorships, among others, were prohibited. Although it was not until September 2021 when it began to be applied, since time was given to finalize the contracts already signed.

Until then, betting house advertising permeated sports broadcasts and 19 of the 20 First Division teams had sponsorship agreements with companies in the sector. It was also common to see faces of celebrities or influencers in betting house advertisements.

The regulations approved in 2020 specified articles 7 and 8 of the Gambling Regulation Law of 2011. The broadcast of the advertisements was relegated to early morning hours, between one and five; sports clubs had to eliminate sponsorship of t-shirts and stadiums, despite the significant amounts of money they received; Aggressive messages and advertising of recruitment bonuses were prohibited (although they still exist) and the famous e influencers They stopped appearing in advertisements. Fines for violations range between 100,000 euros and one million, and the business can even be closed for six months.

While online gambling powers are of a state nature, the autonomous communities are in charge of regulating physical betting houses. Therefore, the application of greater or lesser regulation does not depend on Consumption. In some, for example, it was established that the distance between newly built betting houses and schools had to be at least 500 meters.