Digital casinos, gambling and betting, a major social challenge

Countless families have suffered the ordeal or endured for years the effects that digital games have on minors. The consequences are exacerbated, in many cases, by increasingly sophisticated and technological games.

“My son Michael started playing games on his cell phone at 16, in the middle of the pandemic. We later bought him a better one so he could take his online classes and avoid signal problems, but one of the mistakes we made as parents was not setting a schedule for him to use the device. He would do his homework at night, but then he would start playing until the wee hours. He started behaving strangely and saying he didn't have a dad, mom, or siblings, that we had died, and that was the first warning sign that led to him taking him to the EPS (Health and Medical Center), where they said he had two disorders: bipolar disorder and a compulsive obsession with gambling,” Carlos Méndez, Michael's father, told EL TIEMPO.

The young man was hospitalized several times and medicated, but he eventually returned to gambling. “He spent about a year attending his checkups and having his medication changed. Once he had somewhat recovered, he decided to finish high school at a school where he completed tenth and eleventh grades in a single year,” Méndez adds.

Despite the progress and being somewhat more controlled thanks to his medication, Michael returned to gambling. “He became aggressive with me and even hit me because I was controlling his cell phone usage time. I sought help, and he was hospitalized at the La Paz Clinic for 15 days.” Carlos Méndez maintains that if a person wants to recover, they must do so of their own free will. “As a parent, you can't be watching your child 24/7 to see if they're doing the right thing,” he says. Michael is now 20 years old and says he wants to return to his studies with “greater maturity,” according to his father.

“Gambling addiction is a pathological behavior that not only affects the economically wealthy, but everyone, since anyone can start betting with very small amounts and begin to experience serious financial problems that affect the individual and the family,” Dr. Ana María Bueno, a psychiatrist with a master's degree in addictions, tells EL TIEMPO.

The specialist emphasizes that "pathological gambling is one of the most complex addictions to treat, and it can become a lifelong chronic illness." Adolescents, she explains, are the most at risk.

“In their brains, their dedication to online gaming and sports betting apps hijacks the reward systems to such an extent that their interest will increasingly be limited to these types of activities. The daily and continuous use of technological devices has contaminated some of the most important mental and behavioral functions of human development and the path to adulthood,” explains the psychiatrist.

In our country, there are no institutional studies regarding online gambling addiction among minors. However, a 2018 study by the National University sheds light on the matter. It reports " a prevalence of 6 to 8.9 percent of compulsive gambling among online gamblers and a prevalence ranging from 18.9 percent to 32 percent among young people who actively gamble ," according to Dr. Bueno.

A systematic review and meta-analysis published in The Lancet in August of last year found that 17.9 percent of adolescents had gambled in the past 12 months. This percentage includes problematic gambling, gambling, and online gambling.

The Lancet Public Health Commission on Gambling estimates that 80 million adults worldwide have gambling-related disorders. It predicts that these disorders affect 26.4 percent of adolescents who gamble in digital casinos and 16.3 percent of this same population who place sports bets on specialized sites. Furthermore, the Commission estimates that 448.7 million people globally are at risk and suffer at least one negative consequence from problem gambling, such as financial and mental health problems.

By 2028, the Commission estimates that people who gamble will accumulate net losses amounting to $700 billion.

Meanwhile, in 2024, the global gambling market reached $572.55 billion, according to a report by The Business Research Company. The growth rate compared to the previous year was 8.1 percent. The Lancet Public Health Commission notes that the growth of this industry has been driven by online gambling platforms.

"In the development of this sector, the online segment is becoming increasingly important, currently generating nearly a quarter of total revenue," reads a Statista article.

This same publication notes that physical or digital casinos are an attractive alternative for players. By 2024, their market size was estimated to reach $82 billion. "And if demand remains stable, it could exceed $100 billion by 2028," the article reads.

The United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Singapore, and mainland China are the countries with the greatest gambling popularity in the world. "Within Europe, the United Kingdom is followed by Italy, France, Germany, Finland, and Spain, which is one of the Latin American countries with the greatest gambling popularity, along with Brazil, Peru, and Colombia," Statista emphasizes.

Psychiatrist Ana María Bueno believes that the greatest challenge regarding gambling is having to "face a public health situation with all that this entails: economic losses, expensive treatments, devastated and ruined families, absenteeism and school dropouts, loss of years of healthy life, loss of productivity."

The specialist, for her part, recommends "staying away from the triggers and conditions associated with addiction and avoiding the availability of certain apps and easy access to money. Because it is so difficult to stay away from all these variables, patients and families often face relapses, with the resulting losses, before overcoming the problem."