Online Gambling and Teens: What Parents Need to Know

Online gambling is growing fast—and it’s reaching kids through their phones, games, and social feeds. 

In this episode, we break down why sports betting has exploded, how gaming mechanics like loot boxes can mimic gambling, and why young men are especially vulnerable. 

We also share practical, preventative conversations to start early, plus clear red flags to watch for if your teen is already struggling. 

You’ll learn: 
• how the 2018 Supreme Court decision changed sports betting 
• the connection between gaming and gambling behavior 
• why prop betting is spreading quickly 
• warning signs like secrecy and chasing losses 
• simple guardrails for money, access, and apps 
• how to approach your teen with empathy and clarity 

We’re learning together how to keep kids safe online—one honest conversation at a time. 

RESOURCES

How a 2018 Supreme Court decision paved the way for meteoric growth in legal sports betting | AP News 

 Commercial Gaming Revenue Hits $78.7 Billion in 2025, Driving Record $18.1 Billion in Gaming Taxes Nationwide - American Gaming Association 

 Dave Ramsey Warns: DraftKings and FanDuel Are ‘Destroying a Generation of Young Men’ - Michael Foust | Crosswalk.com 

 2025 Sports Betting and Debt Survey 

 National Survey Finds Widespread Gambling Participation Before Age 21 Amid Public Concern About Youth Exposure Risk - National Council on Problem Gambling 

 How Loot Boxes In Children’s Video Games Encourage Gambling

My kid is addicted to screens. Help! - nextTalk 

Screen Addiction - nextTalk 

My 12yo is spending all his money on V-Bucks. Should I be concerned? - nextTalk 

Pornography - nextTalk 

Face Your Fears - nextTalk 

Build a Safe Place - nextTalk

Avoid Crazy-Parent Mode - nextTalk

How do we talk to our kids about Money? - nextTalk

Transcript

Welcome And The New Trend

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Next Talk Podcast. We are a nonprofit passionate about keeping kids safe online. We're learning together how to navigate tech, culture, and faith with our kids. We've been tracking a new concerning trend: online gambling. Parents are contacting us for help and also sharing their stories with us because they want to warn other parents. I want to be clear, every family who has contacted us, it has been the parents of young men aged 18 to 24. This is the demographic that we're dealing with today. Some of these young men have gotten in very deep with online gambling, and I mean tens of thousands of dollars lost going into debt to keep up the habit. I mean, it's truly become an addiction and ruining their lives. As we've been tracking this and I've been researching, I wanted to do a show to um talk about why this is dangerous. And then at the end of this show, I'm going to give you some practical conversations that you can have in your home with your kids right now to hopefully prevent a gambling addiction. You know, this online gambling thing reminds me of the shift we saw with porn more than a decade ago. And you guys have heard me talk about this before, right? When I grew up, when I was a child, pornography was found in magazines. Um, you could go to mom and pop stores, video stores, and there would be a back room where you could rent pornography videos. But they were not easily accessible. For the last decade, porn has been in everyone's back pocket. With tech advances like the phone and streaming services, porn is available at any time. And so there's been a huge switch with pornography and the access. Online gambling is the same. So, you know, when I grew up, gambling was more in casinos, in-person, very controlled environment as to who was doing it, like as far as age verification and that sort of thing. Now, gambling is in everyone's back pocket. Even if your kid is not gambling, they know kids who are or they've heard about it. So, what changed? Why has online gambling exploded? A 2018 Supreme Court decision is what happened. So before 2018, legal sports betting was basically limited to Nevada. Very simplified. The 2018 Supreme Court ruling struck down a previous federal law, which was originally passed in 1992, called the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. That prohibited betting on football, basketball, baseball, and you know, sports betting in most states. The 2018 ruling, however, uh struck that federal law down, and states gained the freedom to decide for themselves whether to legalize or regulate sports betting. You guys, this Supreme Court ruling triggered a rapid rollout. By 2023 to 2025, over 30 states, 30 to 35 states, had some form of legal sports betting. This exploded into a multi-billion dollar industry with apps like DraftKings, FanDuel, etc. You always have to follow the money. And just like with pornography, when it exploded more than a decade ago, you had to follow the money. People were interested in getting customers, new customers. And so oftentimes kids get caught up in this as new customers. According to the American Gaming Association, in the US alone, gaming revenue hit$78.7 billion in 2025. That is not global. The global number is around 105 billion, but in the US alone, 78.7 billion in one year in 2025. Dave Ramsey recently came out and raised alarms all about this. This is what he said. The fastest growing addiction that is destroying young men in their 20s is online sports gambling. That's a quote from Dave Ramsey. US News conducted a survey in July 2025. Here's what they found. One in four sports betters say they've been unable to pay a bill because of wagers they made. Almost a third, 30% of sports betters say they have debts they attribute to gambling. Let me give you some more research. A national survey conducted by the Harris poll on behalf of the National Council on Problem Gambling found this. Nearly two-thirds of adults age 21 and older, so about 65%, report participating in at least one form of gambling before age 21. Did you catch that? 65% of people reported participating in at least one form of gambling before age 21. Now, this 65% number does include lottery tickets, fantasy sport leagues, minor gambling that some people would say. But I want us to look at this because if you look at the rate of people who are betting younger, it's much higher in this generation in this younger generation than it was like in our generation. So here's what the stat I want you to look at. Younger adults report even higher rates of early sports betting and online casino play before age 21 compared to older generations. Why is that? Because technology really wasn't developed as much. But his, this is what it says. The survey found that 33% of 21 to 44 year olds placed a sports bet before age 21 versus 11% of those who were 55 plus. So I'm having parents personally contact me and raise an alarm about this. I'm hearing people like Dave Ramsey raise the alarm. I'm doing research and finding what I'm what I'm seeing is is legit. And here's another statement that I want to make. I believe kids are being groomed to gamble. Let me explain what I mean by that. A lot of kids' games that are not considered gambling, or you don't have to be 18 to use them. A lot of kids' games like Roblox or NBA 2K, they're they're rated for kids to play. They're pushed and encouraged, they're marketed to kids. But they have what's called loot boxes or mystery boxes or player packs. Sometimes the name changes with the with the certain app or the or the game. But but here's the concept behind these. You pay real money to open a randomized reward. This is like a virtual slot machine. You don't know what you'll get, and kids keep playing because they're chasing the big win. This starts out on apps that many kids play, like I suggested Roblox, NBA 2K. Actually, NBA 2K is one of the most criticized sports games for this. It's rated E for everyone, yet heavily features gambling-like elements that kids encounter. So in NBA 2K, as an example, you have what's called virtual currency VC. Now, this is you can earn VC slowly through gameplay, but you know, it's very encouraged to buy VC with real money. And then VC you can use. It's like the currency within NBA 2K. You can use it for player upgrades and stuff like that. Now, within NBA 2K, there's also this thing called my team mode. And this is the biggest issue. You buy card packs or boxes. Again, it's that general terminology that will change with each app, but it's these loot boxes, these mystery boxes, these player packs. And you buy these with real money purchased VC. Okay, so you have VC that you've purchased with your real money, and then you take the VC and you buy these player packs. You will get new players. Now, these packs, it how it works in this particular app, there's low odds of getting superstar players. So gamers repeatedly buy these packs because they may be wanting to get their favorite player or their this superstar that they want on their team. And critics openly call this gambling or slot machine. Pack openings feel like casino pools with flashy animations, and you know, you're just left to say, what's going to be there? I want that big win. I want that player. I'm going to chase that. Recently, actually, we helped a family, and I want to talk a little bit more in particular about this NBA 2K because the boy was watching a YouTuber, and he was just the YouTuber was talking about ways to improve your NBA 2K game, right? You watch YouTubers to get better at the game. The YouTuber then promised him more VC, virtual currency, if he created a PIC6 account. So a PIC6 account is DraftKings, that's a gambling account. And he did say, the YouTuber did say you have to be 18 in these certain states to get this app. But Pick Six is a fast, simple, peer-to-peer fantasy sports game. So it's a type of um player prop contest where you make predictions on individual player stats. Um, and if enough of your picks hit, then you can win real cash prizes. So for example, and and I'm talking to you because if you if you talk to your kids, you may they may say the word prop betting. Prop betting is a is a form of sports betting. So sports betting is the umbrella that we've been talking about here that is that is massively growing. And then prop betting is underneath it. Prop betting is is things like will this player score more than 25 points in this game? Will the Spurs score over 50 points in the first half? So traditional sports betting is like, I'm gonna bet on that team to win, but prop betting is more on focused on like in the player stats or um a certain points or something like that. It's not traditional sports bettings because you don't bet on game outcomes. And it so it's referred to as prop betting. But prop betting is extremely popular, and it's one of the fastest growing segments in sports betting. So we need to take note of it. All this to say, online gambling is in your kids' back pocket and it's increasing in popularity. It is a new challenge that parents have to face raising kids in a digital world. It's a$78 billion industry in the US alone in 2025. So guess what? People are capitalizing off of it. YouTubers and online influencers are pushing for our kids to download these online gambling apps. And then guess what? They get a bonus or they get paid for how many people they push to these apps. You know, they're getting bonuses and commissions off of this from their affiliate links. And so once again, at Next Talk, we see that we have a new online challenge. And sometimes online challenges freak us out and we feel like playing whack-mo all the time, right? Here's a new one pop up. I mean, we've covered sex tortion and um, you know, stranger danger online and pornography, and now we have online gambling, another whack-mo to present itself. But but at Next Talk, this is why I love our nonprofit and our mission. Yes, we need to be aware of all these things popping up. We need to be aware of the dangers. We need to educate ourselves, which is what we're doing today. But the real solution is going to apply to every situation. That is to build a good relationship with your kid. Foster healthy dialogue, warn them about the online dangers, be a safe place when they mess up. And so I want to kind of walk into, I've shared some scary stats, I've shared some stories with you and some examples of how kids are being directed and encouraged to download these online gambling apps. But right now, I want to hone in on some preventative conversations that I've had in my own home that our team members have had that have been beneficial. And so here's what I want to tell you. First of all, if you have a young man in your home who is gaming, they need to be warned of online gambling. So you need to get ahead of this. What I mean is if he's in middle school or early high school, you need to talk to him about these player packs, these loop boxes, these mystery boxes, the things that he is buying to try and get that big win for that player that he wants. You need to teach him that this kind of mind exercise of getting these player packs and getting excited of the rush of seeing what you get can actually groom him to mimic online gambling. And it can be a dangerous addiction. Please start this conversation early. So most of the gambling apps require the true gambling sports betting game gambling apps require a kid to be 18. Now there's loopholes to that. They can use a parent's account. There's there's all kinds of ways that they can loophole into the age verification. So we do see minors playing these games when they're not supposed to, but you need to get ahead of this before they're 18. So this has been a conversation in my home for years because I've been tracking it and seeing it and not really understanding it, but trying to talk to my own son as I have learned the dangers of it. I know some of you may be saying, well, I'm not going to allow the mystery boxes, the loot boxes, these player packs. I just won't allow it. Um, I would suggest obviously delay it for sure as long as you can. But as they do get older, I think it's something they could earn. Uh, that's something that we, that my son earned over time. But here was the thing: he didn't regularly get money to buy these player packs or these mystery boxes. Um, he would have to wait for like birthday gift cards or Christmas gift cards. And even then, I would ask him, are you sure you want to spend or ask for$50 in gift cards when you're probably gonna not get any players you want and it could be a waste of money? Do you really want to do that? Sometimes he would say yes, and he could. But this wasn't like a monthly thing or a weekly thing that he would be buying. It was a special treat for a birthday or whatever. But even then, I would talk to him about how it mimicked gambling, and I didn't love it that it was on a kids' app and uh, you know, on a game that was marketed to kids. But but I would talk to him about this, but he did eventually earn the right to be able to purchase these mystery uh gift boxes. Now, the other thing too is talk about more than just the online gambling app stuff. And what I mean by this is, you know, a fantasy football league. A lot of times we we think that that's not gambling. But you know, if you're say you're in a fantasy football league and a lot of young men do this, young boys in high school, they do this, they'll put in$10. And, you know, at the end of the thing, whoever wins gets the$120, you know, gets the$10 that everybody put in if there's 12 teams or whatever. And, you know, this is a great conversation because you can say, hey, this could be considered gambling, and it could be, you know, it could make your mind adjust to, I want to get rich quick on something. But how I would present it in my home was you're paying$10 to just do this activity and have fun with your kids and play fantasy. And just think of it like you're not gonna get that money back. It's just$10 for the cost of playing this game. And if you win the 120, great, but don't bank on it, you know? And if you do, don't think that you're always gonna win because that's rare. There were, you know, if there's 12 teams, one team wins, 11 team loses. So your odds are against you. As your son gets older, he may, he and his friends may go do like just poker nights or, you know, just hang out playing cards and they may place a small wager on it or whatever. I've worked with families where they've contacted me and said that this is the case. And so, you know, they've said to me, Do you think that's okay? Well, here's the thing. I mean, it's your family, your choice. I think the conversation around that is again, hey, okay, you're going to your friend's house, you're gonna play cards or poker or whatever, you're gonna take$25 with you. Um,$25 is just the amount of money that you're gonna pay for tonight's fun. Just like if you would go bowling or go to a movie, you're gonna spend that money on a fun activity. And just don't, don't plan to win. And also, like, don't go over your limit. Your your budget for the night is$25. That's what tonight's gonna cost you. And you don't try to access more money at the end of the night because you want to turn it all around. That is the red flag behavior that we want to look for. So I do want to address that. If you are, if your kid is doing this and maybe they are doing the mystery boxes, you know, they've earned that right on the apps, or they're going to poker nights or whatever, and you are seeing some impulsive behavior. So, like they're spending money they don't ask you about for the apps, they're taking money out of their account without talking to you. Um, they uh do go to, you know, poker night with their friends, and at the last minute they they spend another$25 because they want to, you know, win the pot or whatever. They're chasing the big win. Um, if you see that kind of impulsive behavior in your kids, that's a red flag. And you need to put up some more guardrails. And what I mean by guardrails is then money should not be easily accessible to them, especially large sums of money. Like if you have a large account set aside for their college, that they should not have access to that whatsoever. So you have to put on some more guardrails if you see your kids being impulsive about this. The other thing is this, and this has been so good in my own home. Helping my kid with any kind of financial management is just talking to them about their financial goals. So, for example, if they have a job, I will say, how much do you want to make by the end of the summer? And what's it going towards? Right? Are you saving up for tires? When my kid, when my oldest went to college and we're doing this with my youngest too, um, they had a set amount that they would have to contribute each semester. It was a small amount, you know, it wasn't overwhelming. It was something they could make in the summer, but we would say, How are you going to get this money? And so they would have a job and they would apply that to the job. Having goals made them spend less. On gaming and mystery boxes and loot boxes because they had like they had a future. They were planning for their future. They knew what their money needed to go towards. Also, teach them about investing. You know, just let them buy stock. Let them see how that works. Um, talk to them about investing in a Roth. Uh, these are just financial goals that we need to talk to our kids about. And I think it helps them not waste money on gaming type stuff. There's a Bible verse that I absolutely love, and I've said it a lot over the years when I talk about gambling addiction. Wealth from get rich quick schemes quickly disappears. Wealth from hard work grows over time. So we're not looking to instill some get rich quick scheme within our kids. We want them to learn the value of hard work, of putting in a little money into a Roth or a retirement account over time and seeing that grow slowly because it's hard work and discipline. These are the foundational building blocks that we want to instill in our kids about money. And I think when we do that, it helps them navigate not being flippant with money and spending it on stuff like mystery boxes on a game. Also, another talking point, you know, young men are competitive. Most of them are young, are competitive. Many of many of them are athletes. I will tell you, I think all of the families that we've helped or have contacted us have been athletic kids. So there's something there with the thrill of the sports, hobbies, gaming, chasing the wind with the sports. Replace that adrenaline feeling with real life stuff instead of financial risk online. So, what I mean by that is, you know, they're gonna want to be competitive. They want to win. That is not a bad characteristic. But teach them like, go play pickup ball with some of your friends and see who wins. You're doing that in real life, you're being competitive. The thrill of the win is in real life with real people instead of being behind a computer screen, pushing a button, and losing all this money, right? And so there is a thrill with that, there is an excitement with that. Replace that online stuff with in-person, real competitive sports stuff. Also, another talking point. If there is a YouTuber or an influencer promising gift cards or VC, virtual currency, like in the MBA 2K. A lot of apps call it certain things, but it's the currency within the app. The influencer or the YouTuber may ask you to download a brand new app first before getting your prize. So again, this is a red flag. Sometimes these YouTubers, these influencers, they do giveaways. If it's a straight giveaway, you your name is picked and you get the prize. If there is a, well, before you get the gift card, you have to go download this app. And then your next step is to put$5 in this app. And then you have to play it. And then when you do all that, then you get your gift card or the money promised. All of that is a red flag. Anytime there is a like step-by-step process of go do this and report back, a red flag. And again, that's what we see with grooming, with sexual abuse, with keeping secrets from parents. I mean, we've covered this numerous times. That's why I'm saying kids are almost being groomed to gamble. I would say the same thing about online gambling that I do about porn. You're probably gonna say, I'm just gonna tell them not to do it. And we're we're just not gonna do that. Here's my challenge to you. They're still gonna hear about it. They're gonna hear about prop betting. They're gonna, they're gonna develop a curiosity about it. So talk to them about the dangers of it. You're not saying it's okay, you're not giving them a green light, but you're saying, hey, this is happening, and I know you're hearing about it. Here are my concerns. I also want to say before we end this show, is uh I'm not here to say all gambling is wrong or evil. And when I think about gambling, it's very similar to alcohol for me. Having a glass of wine at dinner, if you're an adult, is not sinful. And I say an adult because we are to submit to the laws of the land. That is biblical. An adult having a glass of wine at dinner, not sinful. But drunkenness is. So gambling, you know, if you're gonna say, hey, I'm gonna do this fantasy football league, or I'm gonna allow myself$30 a month to gamble on this certain app. I don't know that that's sinful. But here's what I know: even with alcohol and gambling, it can easily become an idol. It can lead to an addiction. It is a slippery slope, just like with alcohol. And so it can easily create an addiction in your brain and take over your life. So be careful and have your guard up. When gambling becomes an addiction, we are chasing the high. We are chasing the money, we are chasing the wealth. And so also just continually have conversations with your kids about what scripture says about money. I love this verse. Keep your life free from love of money and be content with what you have. As with anything we cover, you know, I'm trying to get ahead of this. So my goal for this podcast is for those of you with younger kids, younger boys in particular, that you will start having preventative conversations right now with them. But I do want to say, if you have an 18-plus young man that you've raised who is already struggling and in deep, please don't go in guns blazing and shame your kid. Don't condemn your kid. You know, honestly, I think if you've got a kid that you're really worried about, I think the conversation can start with an apology from you. And it goes something like this. I'm so sorry when I gave you your phone and gave you technology, I didn't know the dangers of gambling apps. I had no idea that there was a 2018 Supreme Court decision that changed everything. But now I'm getting educated. I should have set up some boundaries for you to protect you from this. And I didn't because I didn't know. And now I've read about how easy it is to get pulled into this and an addiction can form. So maybe we should talk about limits or do you struggle with this? Like, I'm so sorry if you do. Start the conversation that way where you are kind of saying, Man, I should have known about this. I didn't. I'm sorry I didn't have anybody warning me about it. Maybe you can create some good dialogue with that. What I've found with older kids is when I admit my faults first, it lets their guard down. And it also like says to them indirectly, you don't have to be perfect either. If you messed up, if you gambled too much, if you looked at porn, whatever happened, like I love you no matter what. I just want to talk about the dangers of that and why this isn't a great path for you. Also, as we always recommend, if your kid is struggling and you are struggling with an addiction and you know it is an addiction at this point, they're sneaking money, they're losing money, it is taking over their life. Please reach out to a counselor for advice if you need more help. I hope this show has been helpful to you. And I would like to say to every listener out there, if you have a story about online gambling, please let me know. Sometimes you're embarrassed about what happened on an app or you don't want to share it personally because you don't want people knowing that it happened to you. But I've found at Next Talk, what happens a lot of times is people will share their stories with me, with our team, and they will say, You can share my story, just don't use my name because it'll help educate and save other kids. So that's what I would love: the opportunity to use your story to help another kid.

SPEAKER_00 31:26

Next Talk is a 501c3 nonprofit keeping kids safe online. To support our work, make a donation at next talk.org. Next talk resources are not intended to replace the advice of a trained healthcare or legal professional, or to diagnose, treat, or otherwise render expert advice regarding any type of medical, psychological, legal, financial, or other problem. You are advised to consult a qualified expert for your personal treatment plan.