The Australians under the legal era of the game are losing the amazing amount of $ 18.4 million a year for gambling.
The last findings published by the Australia Institute reveal that almost one in three young people aged 12 to 17 have involved in some kind of game.
When the data expands to include 18 and 19 years old, the estimated annual expenses balloons to obtain $ 231 million.
The investigation is based on a national representative survey of 1,000 young people from 12 to 17 and 1,000 from 18 to 19 years. It paints an tightening image of how the game not only extends among adolescents, but is normalizing, according to researchers.
This includes digital environments such as game platforms where young users are exposed to game style characteristics, along with regular exhibition to television advertisements, social networks and even during the main sporting events.
How are teenagers?
Principal researcher Morgan Harrington, from the Australian Institute, said the findings were “alarming and shocking”, and reflected how quickly attitudes towards the game have changed in a single generation.
“While the findings were alarming, I think it would be no secret for most Australian young people and their parents that the incidence of sports bets and bets online has shot in a generation or less,” said Harrington.
“The numbers show that there is a dramatic increase in the game when teenagers turn 18, in 16 percent, in fact. You could look at that and say: ‘That is not surprising since everyone wants to find out how they are when they turn 18 to do a great variety of things.’
“But what our analysis shows is that the numbers are not receded until at least in the mid -20, which is what we analyze. Therefore, it seems that these are habits that adhere.”
Harrington warns that without serious intervention, these behaviors could root and lead to adulthood, which raises risks to financial stability, mental health and well -being.
“What suggests is that if we do not do something to regulate the amount of game advertising in Australia, then this could become a problem that persists for decades.”
A digital door
According to the report, the boys were more likely than girls to bet, with participation constantly increasing with age. Among young people aged 18 to 19, almost half (46 percent) reported playing in the last year.
Professor Sally Gainsbury, director of the Sydney University Game Treatment and Research Clinic, says that the rise of online bets has fundamentally changed how and where the game is carried out.
“The game used to occur in licensed premises that had very strict age restrictions on them. Now, with people who bet online through their phones, it commonly occurs at home,” he said.
“The ads are very visible to people under 18. Therefore, the perception of the game has changed and made it a normalization, highly accessible and much less stigmatized for young people.”
While people need to verify their age to open a game account in Australia, Gainsbury said adolescents often achieve through the use of accounts established by adults.
“Parents, older brothers, older friends, are providing that access, and that is very difficult for tracking operators,” he said.
“There are also websites on the high seas that do not comply with Australian regulations, and that is another way in which adolescents are sliding through cracks.”
Experts warn that financial losses are just a piece of puzzle. The Australian Institute report points to a variety of broader damage, including mental health problems, debt, tense family relationships and academic deterioration.
“If you aligned the game with the most popular sports, the game would be the most popular sport played by adolescents in Australia. This was undoubtedly a shock to see,” said Harrington.
Both Harrington and Gainsbury are asking for an urgent national reform, including the prohibition of game ads, especially in times and events in which children are likely to be observing, and the elimination of the logos of game games of sports uniforms.
At present, there is no national public health strategy aimed specifically to youth games. Although the Federal Government completed an important parliamentary investigation on the game online and its impacts in 2023, no formal changes have been introduced into policies.
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