conducted by the Rutgers University School of Social Work<\/a>, surveyed roughly 1,600 teens and young adults across the United States and examined participation in 21 different gambling activities.<\/p>\nPaul Tarbox, director of public policy and communications for the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling, called the numbers concerning.<\/p>\n
\u201cIdeally, none of them should be gambling near those numbers, so it is kind of shocking that they\u2019re reporting as high as they are,\u201d Tarbox said.<\/p>\n
Researchers also found that high-risk problem gambling was comparable among young men and women. <\/p>\n
Black and Hispanic respondents reported the highest gambling percentages compared with white respondents, according to the study.<\/p>\n
Prediction markets had the highest proportion of weekly participation among the gambling activities examined according to the study.<\/p>\n
The findings come as prediction markets continue to gain visibility. <\/p>\n
On Monday, the NBA announced a partnership with Kalshi and Polymarket as its preferred prediction market platforms.<\/p>\n
Tarbox said Connecticut has a strong safety net for people experiencing problems with gambling, but much of that system is designed for adults.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re dealing with people under that age, it becomes a little tricky,\u201d Tarbox said. \u201cOne, it\u2019s a separate agency. It\u2019s now DCF, so that\u2019s something where we\u2019d have to work with that agency.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said another concern is whether young people will feel comfortable asking for help.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes kids are hesitant to seek help if their parents will be notified, and it\u2019s definitely a robust discussion that needs to be had,\u201d Tarbox said.<\/p>\n
Dr. Sandip Khatri, a general psychiatrist at The Shores Mental Health, said parents should pay close attention to their teens\u2019 behavior, particularly as young people encounter gambling and prediction-market platforms online.<\/p>\n
\u201cGambling, just like any other substances, can activate the reward system and lead to obsessive behaviors despite the negative consequences,\u201d Khatri said.<\/p>\n
Khatri recommends parents watch for potential warning signs, including:<\/p>\n
Secrecy around money<\/p>\n
Unexpected spending habits<\/p>\n
Changes in mood<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly 43% of teens ages 13 to 17 reported gambling in the past year, according to a new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":900696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[15363,97,259,260],"class_list":["post-900695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-gambling","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=900695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/900696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=900695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=900695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=900695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}