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More Teens Are Getting Hooked on Gambling. Parents Say it Often Goes Undetected

Sequoia Carrillo
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This illustration shows a teenage boy sitting cross-legged on a bed with his phone in his hands.
 (LA Johnson/NPR)

Kim Freudenberg, a longtime teacher in San Francisco, knew that raising two boys meant a lot of hard conversations. She warned them about all the usual dangers: drugs, alcohol, sex, social media, riding a bike without a helmet.

“Never once did I even think that I needed to say ‘gambling,'” she recalls.

One day, when her oldest son was 11, he was watching someone play video games on a livestream and clicked on a link in the comments. It took him to an offshore online casino.

There, he got sucked in — to blackjack, poker, roulette. He could use items from the video game as money. Soon he got hooked, but the signs of his addiction were hard to spot.

“It’s not like he was just holed up in his room 24-7,” Freudenberg says. “He ran track. He played soccer. He was a great student.”

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Until he dropped out of college at age 19. That’s when his mom found out that he had been gambling for nearly half his life.

He’d sold things from around the house to keep up with his debts, borrowed money from friends and, then, eventually, started stealing money from his parents.

It’s a problem that educators, researchers and parents like Freudenberg say is affecting a growing number of young people, most of them boys. A recent national survey from Common Sense Media found that 36% of boys age 11 to 17 in the U.S. have gambled in the past year.

“It’s a lot of kids,” says Michael Robb, the head of research at Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that promotes digital safety for kids. “A third of kids is a lot of kids.”

He notes that playing fantasy football with friends or making a March Madness bracket may be harmless. It could, for example, help strengthen male friend groups. But for a small subset of boys, Robb adds, things can get out of control: “They’re not all going to have problems. But given how much things have changed in the last couple of years, the way [some kids] are engaging in gambling behaviors is already flashing red signs.”

It’s not just teens. Gambling has soared in the U.S. since a key Supreme Court ruling in 2018 allowed states to legalize sports betting. That opened the floodgates, from one state back then to 38 in 2024.

Before that decision, Americans spent $4.9 billion annually on sports betting. By 2023, that figure had ballooned to $121 billion, according to The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

And those were just the legal bets. No one under 18 can gamble legally, but experts say the opportunities are everywhere.

“If I wanted to bet on the [Washington] Nationals,” says Matt Missar, an addiction counselor in Pittsburgh, “20 years ago, as a teenager, I’ll go find a bookie and I’ll place a bet. Nowadays, I can bet on every single pitch of a game.”

Much of the explosion in legalized gambling is happening on cellphones, Missar notes. “It is incredibly easy.”

He specializes in gambling and video game addictions and says the number of young adults he sees come through his practice has ticked higher in recent years.

“It’s not just that the problem arose when they’re 18,” he says. “It started when they were 13 or 14 … and slowly over those years it became more of a problem.”

Freudenberg wishes she had seen the warning signs. But often, she says, online gambling can look the same as texting a friend or watching a video.

She thinks removing the guardrails has created a slippery slope for kids: “If my kid had to get in a car, drive to a bank, take out money, drive to a casino, go into the casino, show an ID at the door — he probably wouldn’t be a gambling addict.”

After a few attempts at rehab, she says, her son is back at college and doing well. Freudenberg helped start a support group for parents of teen gamblers, and their numbers are growing.

She fears that, all over the country, there are lots more parents just like her.

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“The tsunami is on the horizon,” she says. “And it’s gonna be really, really bad.”

Transcript:

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

The legalization of online gambling and sports betting in many states, and all the advertising for it, is raising fears that more young people are getting addicted. Here’s NPR’s Sequoia Carrillo.

SEQUOIA CARRILLO, BYLINE: Kim Freudenberg is a high school physics teacher in San Francisco. She’s also the mom of two boys, which, of course, brought the usual anxieties and fears.

KIM FREUDENBERG: Lots of discussions about drugs and alcohol and sex and social media and wearing a helmet.

CARRILLO: She knows there are many, many ways that kids, especially boys, can find themselves in trouble before anyone even knows.

FREUDENBERG: Never once did I even think that I needed to say gambling.

CARRILLO: What she didn’t know was that one day, when her oldest son was 11, he was watching someone play video games on live stream and clicked on a link in the comments. It took him to an offshore online casino. There, he got sucked into blackjack, poker, roulette, and he could use items from the video game as money. Soon, he got hooked, but Fredenberg says no one knew.

FREUDENBERG: It’s not like he was just holed up in his room 24/7. Like, he ran track. He played soccer. He was a great student.

CARRILLO: Quietly, her son became an addict, winning and losing money, selling things from around the house to keep up with his debts and then eventually stealing money from his parents. Her son ended up dropping out of college at 19. That’s when his mom found out that he had been gambling.

FREUDENBERG: It’s so bad. And parents, I think, are so unaware of what’s happening and how potentially dangerous and life-destroying gambling can be.

CARRILLO: It’s a problem educators, researchers and parents like her say is affecting a growing number of young people, most of them boys. In 2018, a key Supreme Court ruling allowed states to legalize sports betting, and that opened the floodgates.

MATT MISSAR: I’m a Washington Nationals fan. If I want to bet on the Nationals 15, 20 years ago as a teenager, I’ll go find a bookie and I’ll place a bet. But nowadays, I can bet on every single pitch of a game – ball, strike, ball, strike. I can bet on that.

CARRILLO: That’s Matt Missar, an addiction counselor in Pittsburgh specializing in video games and gambling. He says he’s seen a growing number of young people in his practice, even though no one under 18 can gamble legally. So I asked him – how are kids still doing it?

MISSAR: It is incredibly easy. Honestly, in the time I spent answering that question, I bet someone could have downloaded three sites, signed up for them and been able to start gambling right away.

CARRILLO: A recent national survey from Common Sense Media, the nonprofit group that focuses on kids and concerns around media, found that 36% of boys aged 11 to 17 in the U.S. have gambled in the past year.

MICHAEL ROBB: It’s a lot of kids. Like, a third of kids is a lot of kids.

CARRILLO: Michael Robb is Common Sense Media’s head of research. And he notes that playing fantasy football with friends or making a March Madness bracket may be harmless for kids and can help strengthen male friend groups. But for a small subset of boys, things can get out of control.

ROBB: They’re not all going to have problems. But given how much things have changed in the last couple of years, the way that they are engaging in gambling behaviors is already flashing red signs. Like, something is wrong.

CARRILLO: Kim Freudenberg wishes she had seen some of those warning signs. But even for a veteran teacher, often, online gambling can look the same as texting a friend or watching a video.

FREUDENBERG: If my kid had to get in a car, drive to a bank, take out money, drive to a casino, go into the casino, show an ID at the door, he probably wouldn’t be a gambling addict. He wouldn’t have been able to do all of that.

CARRILLO: After a few attempts at rehab, her son is now back at college and doing well. She helped start a support group for parents, and every week, their numbers keep growing. And she fears that all over the country, there are lots more parents just like her.

FREUDENBERG: The tsunami is – it’s, like, on the horizon, and it’s going to be really, really bad.

CARRILLO: Sequoia Carrillo, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

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