A new Norwegian study among young people aged 12 to 17 shows something alarming. Young people who game fanatically, especially those who buy lootboxes or bet on ‘skins’, have a much greater risk of gambling problems.
Nearly 9,000 young people participated in this study. Of them, over 27% said they had bought lootboxes in the past year. Just over 29% bought digital ‘skins’, and 15% engaged in skin betting.
Among this group, gambling problems were much more common. Young people who participate in these digital wagers seem to get entangled in real gambling more quickly.
Boys appear more susceptible to gaming with gambling elements
The research also shows that boys are involved in these forms of gaming and gambling far more often than girls. For example, 45% of boys bought lootboxes, compared to 9% of girls. For actual gambling, that difference is also high: 27.7% of boys gambled, compared to 9.3% of girls.
Professor Ståle Pallesen, who led the research, calls it worrying. He says that young people learn to gamble via these digital games, but in a way that doesn’t align with reality.
“You win more often, it seems easy, and that makes it misleading.”
The Norwegian regulator previously warned about these kinds of risks. In new rules regarding bingo, Norway is also trying to limit these types of dangers in the offline world.
Political pressure on Norway to intervene
More and more politicians want to adjust Norway’s gambling policy. The country still has a gambling monopoly, but the pressure to change that is growing.
The link between gaming and gambling fuels that debate. Because if young people are already getting into trouble via innocent games, the government must do something about it. Especially now that political pressure on the gambling monopoly is also increasing, stricter regulation is becoming more and more likely.
According to the research, 7.1% of young people are already dealing with gambling problems. And 15% show problematic gaming behavior. That is no longer a niche problem, but something that affects entire generations.