Rutgers Study Documents 42.7% Past-Year Gambling Rate Among US Adolescents Aged 13-17

A national survey led by Lia Nower, director of Rutgers’ Center for Gambling Studies, found that 42.7% of US adolescents aged 13 to 17 participated in gambling activities in the past year. The study, which examined 1,677 respondents aged 13 to 27 between April and July 2026, establishes a benchmark across 21 categories ranging from sports betting and lottery play to cryptocurrency trading, social casino games and prediction markets.

Overall gambling participation reached 52.5% among all respondents. Among those who gambled, nearly 40% showed some level of problem gambling risk and 10.3% were classified high risk. Across the full sample, 20.8% experienced some problem gambling risk while 5.4% fell into the high-risk category. The research as reported by World Casino News also tied frequent and early gambling to elevated severity.

Household Exposure and Socioeconomic Patterns Drive Risk

41.1% of all respondents reported a family or household member who gambled, rising to 51.5% among the 13-17 age group. Adolescents who perceived a household gambling problem were more than five times as likely to be high-risk; those who gambled with family members were more than four times as likely. Lower-income households showed sharper effects: nearly 30% of gamblers from homes earning under $10,000 annually were high risk, compared with 22.8% from $10,000-$20,000 households.

Racial and ethnic differences surfaced as well. Black non-Hispanic respondents recorded the highest past-year gambling rate at 63.9%, with 17.7% of Black gamblers classified high risk versus 12.8% of Hispanic gamblers and 6.4% of non-Hispanic White gamblers. High-risk rates were comparable between males and females at approximately 10% each.

Emerging Activities and Co-Occurring Behaviors

Prediction market participants showed roughly 40% high-risk classification while social casino players reached 41%, far above the 10.3% overall high-risk rate among gamblers. 65.4% of high-risk individuals gambled both online and in land-based settings, and more than half did so at least weekly.

Gamblers reported higher rates of alcohol use (44.6% versus 25.9% for non-gamblers), binge drinking (25.6% versus 10.5%), drug use (26.7% versus 17.6%), excessive social media use (51% versus 38.7%) and excessive shopping (12.6% versus 7.8%). Among high-risk problem gamblers, 52.8% reported anxiety, 38.4% reported depression and 13.1% reported suicidal ideation.

Nower stated: “We are living in a time where anyone can have a casino or sportsbook in their pocket. Teens who should be playing sports are betting on them.” She added: “Gambling is no longer confined to casinos and lottery tickets. It is increasingly embedded in video games, sports broadcasts, and other products young people can access. We have worried this would increase rates of problem gambling among youth. Now we know it does.”

The Open Question for Youth Safeguards

The documented cumulative effect of early, frequent and multi-channel participation, combined with clear household and income gradients, leaves regulators, operators and educators with a narrow window to strengthen age controls and family-facing prevention before digital embedding widens further.