The epidemic of online gambling addiction in adolescence: an empirical research of gambling disorder

Licenses to operate with online gambling establishments (casino, bingo, slots, bets and online
poker) started in Spain in June 2012. Since then, the gambling offerchoice, advertising and spending
of among Spaniards has strongly increased heavily. Since online gambling is more addictive than
traditional gambling, new cases of pathological gambling have appeared due to online gambling,
mainly in the younger population.
In this study, the gambling pattern and the associated problems (risk and pathological gambling)
are analyzed in 7,265 schoolchildren between 15 and 19 years old, taking into account differences
according to age and sex. From the results obtained it is concluded that adolescents mostly
engage in sports betting, the gambling that adolescents participate with more regularity are sports
betting, finding statistically significant differences both in frequency and in gambling problems
(pathological gambling and risk gambling) between women and men, and between minors and
adolescents between 18 and 19 years old. Differences were also obtained between women and
men, as well as among minors of age and adolescents of 18 and 19 years old.In all cases, the
prevelance of adition to online gambling in adolescents between 15 and 19 years old id higher
than in the general population in terms of gambling disorders, standing at 0.72%.
An epidemic is a health problem that affects a part of the population at a certain time in a way that
is higher than expected. Therefore, we can affirm that now we are now seeing have an epidemic of
addiction to online gambling in adolescents. And tThe causes of this are the legalization, promotion
and the absence of any regulation that defends the right to health over the economic interests.