Almost one in every four secondary school students in Buenos Aires City have gambled online, an alarming new survey has revealed.
Some 24 percent of teenagers aged 12 to 19 say they have wagered cash online. The phenomenon is not only widespread, it is intense: 8.8 percent revealed that they “bet frequently.”
These are the initial worrying conclusions of a brand-new study summarising the conclusions of a survey drawn up by the Defensoría del Pueblo de la Ciudad (DPC) office of the Buenos Aires City government. It consulted 2,765 students aged 12 to 19 from 25 different schools across the capital.
“We had been listening to a systematic concern over this topic at schools. And that is why we started conducting research and gathering information to get to a correct diagnosis on the current situation,” said Roxana Perazza, director general of the DPC’s Derecho al Desarrollo Humano team.
“With this specific knowledge we can start making better prevention policies to solve a problem that is both complex and dramatic,” she explained.
The survey’s findings are that today gambling is a widespread problem across all socioeconomic levels.
“One of the main findings is that online betting is a crosswise phenomenon in terms of the socio-economic position of households. It does not distinguish between social classes,” highlighted Perazza.
Even though children of both genders are exposed to betting, the problem is clearly more common among males. According to the survey’s organisers, among youths 71 percent are male and 25 percent are female, with four percent identifying as another category (undefined, non-binary etc.)
There is also a marked trend in terms of age: as a student progresses through school years, exposure to online betting increases. While only 13 percent had placed a bet in their first year of secondary school education, the percentage reached 30 percent for fifth-year students.
No-one can deny that it is an addiction either. Asked whether they had difficulties to “stop betting,” 25 percent of those who had gambled said they “had difficulties to stop betting” when they were winning. And 29 percent claimed they suffered the same difficulty when losing money. Experts say this underlines the dangers and risks of betting compulsively.
Those designing future policies to tackle this issue must know what they’re dealing with too. Quizzed on what games they are betting, almost half said they were casino games (47.8 percent). Sports betting was in second with 32.3 percent.
Notably, among women, there is a greater trend towards casino games (59.9 percent), while among males, sports betting is more popular (37.6 percent).
In order to assist the development of strategies to tackle the problem, researchers also sought to establish why youngsters are turning to gambling online. The two core answers were “making money” and “having fun” – the former was mentioned in 67 percent of assessed comments.
Teenagers also consider that betting “is a fast and simple way to have an income, which allows them access to products, outings or even a kind of financial independence.” A quarter though, say they just do it to “have fun and pass the time.”
When consulted on how they got to know online betting platforms, 73.1 percent of youths answered they discovered these sites through friends, acquaintances or relatives. Yet just over one out of every four (25.7 percent) found online betting sites through social network influencers or direct advertising.
In response to the findings, the Defensoría del Pueblo de la Ciudad ombudsman office has taken preventative measures, notifying gambling sites and banks that virtual wallets are being used by users as payment methods.
It also recommended to Argentina’s Central Bank that financial institutions provide reports on the transactions of accounts designated to adults that are being used by minors.
A recent court measure pushed from the Buenos Aires City government follows the same line. In recent weeks, City Hall has reported 16 influencers and celebrities who, from their social media accounts, promote betting games on platforms to teenagers.
Public discussion often puts education and schools at the heart of the debate, amid claims that kids bet freely during class time. But the survey shows that 47.9 percent of gambling happens “at home,” with another 18.9 percent taking place “anywhere.” Only 9.9 percent of teens admitted gambling at school.
For the Ombudsman’s Office, this illustrates the importance of “family dynamics” and of providing adults “with tools so that they can identify the problem and approach the subject.”
They also propose improved regulations to discourage the practices and exert effective state control over platforms to restrict online betting among teenagers, while demanding social responsibility by the private sector.
– TIMES/PERFIL
by Claudio Corsalini & Enrique Garabetyan, Perfil
