Sports betting sites are supposed to be off limits to minors. But odds are, many teens get past the barriers.
(Illustration by News Decoder)
This article, by high school student Teddy Davey was produced out of News Decoder’s school partnership program. Teddy is a student at The Tatnall School, a News Decoder partner institution. Learn more about how News Decoder can work with your school.
When Michael McGinley was in high school, he started a sports betting social media page with a few of his peers. Named Buzz Bar Betters, the page operates through an Instagram account, where McGinley and other people his age come together to post videos sharing their bets for upcoming sporting events.
“I’d say it’s a passion,” said McGinley who is now in his first year at James Madison University, in the U.S. state of Virginia, where he is studying business.
Watch any sporting event and you will notice numerous advertisements marketing a variety of sports betting platforms: DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, Fanatics Sportsbook, Bet365, the list goes on. It only takes a few clicks and the app is downloaded to your phone so you can place bets 24/7.
Mainly thanks to betting becoming far more digital, there has been a rapid increase in the commercial gambling industry.
In 2024, Americans bet almost $148 billion on sports, more than 95% of it wagered online, according to the American Gaming Association.
Teens gamble online.
In a report on gambling, the World Health Organization stresses the potential harms of the proliferating global market, “challenging the health and well-being of populations.” The report warns: “Unlicensed, illegal or offshore gambling poses significant regulatory challenges for all governments.”
According to a November 2024 report from the The Lancet Public Health Commission on gambling, about 46% of adults and 18% of adolescents had engaged in gambling of some form within the preceding year across the globe.
The commission found that one in 10 adolescents had gambled online. “Which is noteworthy,” the commission reported, “given the widespread agreement that commercial gambling among adolescents should be prohibited.”
All of the online sports betting applications have some form of identity verification to be sure the user is of age, but adolescents seem to find ways to set up accounts. That’s what Michael McGinley did.
“I made my first sports betting account when I was 18 years old on Underdog, and then when I was 18 years old, I downloaded DraftKings even though I’m not legally allowed to place bets on DraftKings,” McGinley said.
Putting up barriers to youth gambling
David Huffman is the chief operating officer of the sports betting marketplace called Sporttrade. Huffman said Sporttrade has a process to verify a user’s age. “We partner with third-party providers where you try to sign up, we verify your identity against public known records,” he said. “So we do a lot of stuff on the front end.”
Sporttrade has access to lots of user information that helps continue to monitor players as they bet. For example, if you were trying to play under your 21-year-old brother’s identity, Sporttrade could pick up on that if, for example, they see a bank account under a different name.
“If you try to deposit money from your Venmo into your brother’s account,” said Huffman.
They can also monitor abnormalities in the locations of bettors. “I personally think gambling should always remain 21,” Huffman said. “Underage kids should really not be trying gambling and getting these addictive behaviors because it’s very hard to shake, and losing 50 bucks when you’re 18 isn’t the end of the world, but it really shapes the way you act in the future.”
Sports betting can cause significant harm to people who gamble money on high risk wagers that would otherwise pay living expenses or go into savings or investments.
Many spent on gambling is needed elsewhere.
According to a June 2024 study done by a team of researchers led by University of Kansas Assistant Professor of Finance Kevin Pisciotta, sports betting may lead to constrained households spending more money on gambling that would have otherwise been put towards investments, savings or reducing debt, likely resulting in weaker financial health in the long-term.
McGinley said that winning sometimes doesn’t make up for the times you lose. “If you placed a $50 bet on something you think is easy and you lose it’s kinda just like, ‘What the fuck are you doing?’”
Sports betting also can have serious effects on mental health functioning, especially when introduced to gambling at an early age.
Back in 2006, researchers Mary Wilber and Marc Potenza wrote in the journal Psychiatry that gambling among adolescents is linked to a greater likelihood of alcohol use and related issues compared to those who don’t gamble.
The most important practice in gambling is the ability to set limits for yourself.
Gambling addiction
Sporttrade has what they call a “Patron Protection Center” to target problem gambling, allowing users to set daily, weekly or monthly deposit limits. Unfortunately, other sports betting platforms do not follow the same agenda and there is a financial disincentive to rein in problem gamblers.
“This isn’t an opinion, this is a fact,” said Huffman, of Sporttrade. “All the sports books make their most revenue from problem gamblers. We’re pretty aggressive on problem gambling.”
This is consistent with World Health Organization data which states: “People gambling at harmful levels generate around 60% of losses,” or gambling revenue.
Some of the measures Sporttrade takes to shut down such behavior includes artificial intelligence and machine learning to detect abnormal betting habits. A typical situation, for example, might be someone who starts to bet unusually more, in an effort to “chase losses.”
When asked about one piece of advice for a newer bettor entering the space, Huffman urged people to put bets in perspective and identify how much money you are willing and able to lose.
“You could say well I would’ve gone to the movies or I would’ve gone to this concert and spent 100 bucks on that so I’m willing to lose 100 doing this,” Huffman said, as an example.
McGinley said that as a first-year college student, he knows it is important to set limits as he doesn’t have much of an income yet.
“I don’t place anything more than $10 on something,” McGinley said. “If I parlay something it’s about $5 max.”
Questions to consider:
1. What is so attractive about online sports gambling?
2. Why can gambling be problematic?
3. Do you think that young people should be allowed to gamble? Why?
Teddy Davey is in his fourth year at The Tatnall School in Wilmington, Delaware where he is a News Decoder student ambassador. He is an active member of student government and enjoys studying macroeconomics and Latin. Outside of the classroom, Teddy has dedicated himself to training for a long-distance triathlon. Next year he plans to study business at Tulane University in New Orleans.