EU Survey Warns of Rising Youth Gambling and Online Betting Among Boys
EU survey finds large national differences in youth gambling and a marked rise in online betting among boys.
LISTEN TO THIS ARTICLE:A new European school survey has flagged gambling as an increasingly important youth risk, with striking variance between countries and a shift toward mobile and online platforms that complicate early detection. The European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA), reporting results from the eighth European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD), says gambling now merits the same level of policy attention historically reserved for alcohol and tobacco use among adolescents.
Sharp Country Differences in Europe’s Youth Gambling Trends
The ESPAD survey covered 37 countries and more than 113,000 students aged 15 to 16. Overall, 23 percent of respondents said they had gambled for money in the previous 12 months, with a large gender gap: 30 percent of boys versus 13 percent of girls. Although gambling remains less common than alcohol or tobacco and sits roughly alongside cannabis use in prevalence, EUDA researchers caution that the intensity of some young people’s gambling and the associated harms warrant prioritisation.
Use of the Lie/Bet screening tool within the survey identified approximately 5 percent of gamblers as meeting a threshold for problematic or excessive gambling; in some countries the figure for male students approached 9 percent. The report highlights that these rates may understate the problem because digital behaviours are harder to monitor and often occur off the radar of parents, schools and traditional youth services.
Country-level differences were pronounced. Participation was highest in Italy (45 percent), Iceland (41 percent) and Greece (36 percent), with Lithuania and Cyprus also reporting rates around 35 percent. By contrast, Sweden, Norway and Georgia registered rates below 15 percent, with Georgia at about 9.5 percent. EUDA warned against simple cross-country comparisons, noting that social norms, national regulation, marketing environments and survey administration methods vary widely and affect outcomes.
The form of gambling is changing rapidly. About 65 percent of teenagers who gambled reported using online platforms exclusively or in combination with land-based betting. The increased popularity of mobile betting apps, social casino games and in-game mechanics such as loot boxes means that exposure can begin earlier and be sustained more seamlessly than in previous generations.
An EUDA analyst commented: "We are seeing a clear migration to digital spaces where gambling interactions are continuous and often blended into gaming. That raises detection and prevention challenges because typical school- or community-based signals are less visible when activity happens on private devices."
Independent experts say the findings should prompt a rethink of youth prevention strategies. Dr. Marta Silva, a public health researcher focused on adolescent behaviour, said: "The survey underlines two things: first, that a minority of young people who gamble do so at levels that risk harm; and second, that technology is changing how and where gambling starts. Policymakers must update age verification, advertising limits and school-based education to reflect those changes."
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Next Steps for Regulators and Educators
The EUDA report arrives as several national regulators in Europe debate tightening rules for online operator marketing and updating advertising standards for under-18s. Policy options highlighted by researchers include mandatory, verifiable age verification for betting apps; restrictions on targeted advertising across social media and streaming platforms popular with teenagers; and the integration of gambling harms into broader school health curricula alongside substance-use prevention.
ESPAD’s large sample size lends weight to the trend lines, but the agency and external analysts both emphasise caveats: variations in national law, the wording of survey questions, and differing survey participation rates can all influence country comparisons. Even so, the combination of widespread online access, targeted marketing and gaps in early detection leads experts to conclude that gambling should now be treated as a core youth public-health concern across Europe.
For regulators, educators and public-health bodies, the survey supplies a timely evidence base to inform targeted prevention programmes, improved oversight of digital operators and cross-border cooperation on advertising standards and age verification practices.
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