According to recent research, one in five 16-year-old Irish students are having trouble quitting their habit. According to a recent study, young male teenagers who engaged in problem gambling or excessive gambling were the majority.

The study, titled "Children and Gambling - Evidence to Inform Regulation and Responses in Ireland," gathered and analyzed information from nearly 2,000 secondary school students nationwide who were 16 years old. The study gathered the information needed to analyze Irish teenagers' propensities for gambling, including whether they used slot machines, played card games, or bet on sporting events or animal races. Additionally, it examined their gambling habits.

Nearly 50% of the teenagers who participated in the survey admitted to gambling, but the study found that boys were more likely than girls to do so (28.9% vs. 17.9%).

According to information in the aforementioned report, nearly 50% of those who wager on sports or animal races also binge drink occasionally at least once, and about 25% of gamblers have run into trouble with the Garda Sochána, Ireland's national police force. There is a connection between gambling and smoking; young people who smoke or use e-cigarettes are twice as likely to gamble for real money.

When minors felt the need to wager increasing sums of money on different types of gambling or to lie to others about their gambling expenditures, they were deemed to have a problem with gambling.

Links between Teens’ Gambling and Substance Use Found by the Survey.

As was already mentioned, the survey revealed that boys who used alcohol, tobacco, or cannabis as well as those who had lower academic standing typically suffered harm from gambling and gambling-related issues. Irish underage gamblers' preferred gambling option was sports betting. Then came gambling on lotteries, playing cards, and slot machines. Nearly 25% of the teenagers surveyed who admitted to playing online gambling said they did so for cash.

The aforementioned report presents information on Irish students' gambling behaviors and activities that was gathered in 2019 as part of the IPH and TFRI's European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs. Once every four years, a survey is conducted.

Boys had a higher likelihood of developing problem gambling behavior, according to the research, which found that male and female adolescent gambling behaviors were distinct from one another. According to the survey's findings, boys made up about 80% of Irish 16-year-olds who gambled in the year before the survey and had trouble reining in their gambling. In addition, boys were more likely than girls to gamble excessively, bet on sports or animal races, and gamble online. 

Irish boys were three times more likely than Irish girls to engage in excessive gambling among 16-year-olds who had done so in the previous year. The same pattern held true for problem gambling, with Irish adolescent boys over 2.5 times more likely than girls to become gambling addicts.

In order for the competent authorities to build on the findings and develop more targeted measures for protecting minors from gambling-related harm, experts say that the report's findings highlighted the need for additional research on Irish children and their gambling habits and behavior.