What may look like harmless fun can quickly become something much more damaging. With online gambling now just a click away, young people are especially vulnerable to an industry designed to keep them betting. The consequences can reach far beyond an empty bank account, affecting marriages, families, and even lives. It’s something to which we need to give more attention! Read on – our children (and society) are counting on us.
On behalf of families,
Wendy Wixom, President
United Families International
More Than a Game: The Growing Threat of Online Gambling
Cristina Cevallos
Gambling has existed for centuries in various forms, from games of chance and lotteries to betting. Today, it is closely intertwined with addiction and the devastating consequences it brings to individuals and families. Until recently, it was tied to physical environments and experiences, however, it has evolved alongside the internet, creating new and increasingly accessible ways to place bets. The shift to online platforms has made betting particularly appealing to younger generations. Digital environments lower the barriers and intensify psychological and financial vulnerabilities by making gambling more immediate, convenient, and difficult to escape.
Understanding this evolving phenomenon requires examining its personal, familial, and broader social consequences. Recently, a pioneering UK study identified interconnected themes explaining how and why gambling harms people from diverse backgrounds and circumstances. These include the normalization of gambling through sports, entertainment, advertising, and digital environments; limited awareness of gambling-related risks; regulatory frameworks; the role of shame, secrecy, and stigma in discouraging people from seeking help; and financial harms, including losses, borrowing, and debt.
A combination of economic, personal, and social motivations also drives gambling: the desire to become wealthy, recover previous losses, see oneself as a winner, and earn admiration from others. Gambling companies in fact design advertisements and betting sites to keep gamblers engaged by portraying winners (generally men) as euphoric figures, admired by those around them and surrounded by an almost luminous aura.
Should we ban a game?
While people have historically viewed this activity as a vice, contemporary society increasingly regards it as an economic activity requiring legal regulation. However, the substantial amounts of money involved in gambling have created powerful interests opposed to tighter regulation. Television networks and social media platforms benefit financially from gambling advertisements, particularly those associated with sports.
In fact, Brazil recently banned sports betting and online casinos on the grounds that they constitute a social harm. However, this decision has significant implications for one of the country’s largest industries: soccer. Both clubs and players rely heavily on advertising revenue and sponsorship deals from betting companies. The move comes amid allegations that some players may have manipulated match results in exchange for payments from betting operators, with prominent soccer figures also linked to betting companies as business owners or investors.
Many countries prohibit gambling (mostly for religious reasons), but its addiction is a global problem. In Spain, for instance, it is the behavioral addiction associated with the highest revenue for rehabilitation and treatment centers. Many countries are adapting their regulatory frameworks to address the risks associated with new betting technologies. Sri Lanka and Armenia, for example, are seeking to strengthen their gambling oversight systems to ensure greater transparency in the sector. However, one challenge is that, despite these restrictions, citizens have found ways to continue betting through offshore platforms.
Meanwhile, the Dutch gambling regulator has launched public-awareness campaigns to encourage early conversations about gambling and make it easier for young people to seek help. These initiatives target young adults, as well as their parents, relatives, and friends, particularly when they are already experiencing gambling problems or face an increased risk of developing them.
How gambling overtakes daily life
Pathological gambling affects virtually every aspect of a person’s life, including mental and physical health, family relationships, and academic, professional, and social functioning. According to addiction specialists, people with gambling addictions experience an urge that subsides only when they begin betting, and they often minimize or deny their problem. They also experience restlessness, irritability, and anxiety when trying to stop, mirroring the withdrawal symptoms of substance use disorders.
The situation becomes particularly dangerous when individuals begin betting more than they can afford to lose or need increasingly large sums of money to experience the same excitement. To fund their gambling and recover losses, individuals may resort to desperate measures—such as borrowing, selling personal belongings, or committing petty theft.
Beyond financial difficulties, gambling addiction erodes trust and damages relationships with family members and friends. Compounding the issue, individuals frequently hide their gambling, making it incredibly difficult for loved ones to spot the warning signs and step in to help.
Personal testimonies featured in an investigation by CBC News reveal the devastating impact of gambling addiction. One former gambler described how “everything that we built goes crumbling down,” explaining that such experiences can lead people to contemplate suicide. In Canada, at least 220 people with gambling problems have died by suicide in the past decade.
In Australia, the suicide of 22-year-old Kyle Hudson prompted calls for major gambling industry reforms. Hudson opened online betting accounts shortly after turning 18. Over the next four years, he placed more than 10,000 bets and lost over $40,000. On the morning of his death, he lost approximately $6,000 in bets.
Hudson regularly used Sportsbet, triggering 37 alerts in the company’s internal “Safer Gambling” monitoring system. Although the company sent him automated support emails and suspended his account, it later reactivated it at his request. The company also continued sending him hundreds of promotional offers encouraging him to keep betting.
Critical measures for implementation
Addressing this problem requires action on two fronts. First, through mental health support. Treatment options for pathological gambling include counseling, self-help groups, and psychiatric medication. Stopping does not have to be a response to a crisis; anyone can make the decision to quit at any time. Family, friends, schools, and churches play an important role in recognizing potential problems and providing support and education.
Second, governments must address the issue through regulation, taking into account gambling-related content on social media, online video platforms, advertisements, and video games. Although many platforms already require users to verify their age, provide identification, and register a bank account, these safeguards are not enough.
Governments should also require platforms to offer deposit limits, 24-hour lockouts after repeated failed logins, real-time tracking of time and money spent, and automated over-limit alerts. Likewise, they should prohibit online gambling advertisements during certain hours and in specific locations to prevent their exposure to and promotion among young people.
Another possible measure would be to establish a Fund for Mental Health and Online Gambling Addiction, financed by contributions from gambling platforms, to support awareness campaigns, early detection, treatment, support services, training, and research.
Regulation alone will not solve this problem. Laws can limit the reach of an industry built on losses, but only strong families and communities can offer what gambling falsely promises: a sense of worth, belonging, and hope that no jackpot can buy. Let us not allow a game to take away our families, much less our lives or the lives of those we love.
Cristina is a Peruvian lawyer with a master’s degree in Human Rights. She combines political experience with her work as a writer and researcher, focusing on bioethics, family, religious freedom, and cultural heritage.