When you think about high school students gathering to watch the Super Bowl, you probably imagine a room full of excited fans cheering for their favorite team. But according to one 17-year-old New York student named Max, the atmosphere has changed dramatically. Instead of celebrating together when their team wins, many of his classmates now spend game day feeling miserable about failed bets.
Max, a senior at a private Manhattan school, shared his observations with reporters, painting a troubling picture of how sports betting has infiltrated teenage life.
Kids Are Draining Their Savings to Place Bets
The stories Max tells are startling. He knows high schoolers who are withdrawing money from their savings accounts or even their bar mitzvah funds just to keep betting. Some of his classmates stay up until the early morning hours watching games across the country, not because they love the sport, but simply because they can place wagers on it. Their grades are suffering, their sleep schedules are wrecked, and the betting never seems to stop.
Kids take money out of savings accounts or bar mitzvah accounts for betting. I know kids who stay up super late and sacrifice their grades to watch sports across the country, just because they can bet on it.
The New York Council on Problem Gambling has been tracking this issue, and their findings are alarming. According to their research, roughly 90% of high school students have placed at least one bet in the past year.
What makes this even more puzzling is which platforms these kids are using. Max mentioned that DraftKings and FanDuel are the most popular betting apps at his school. But these firms have strict age verification systems in place. They’re required by law to prevent underage gambling, and failing to do so could cost them their licenses. So how are so many teenagers managing to place bets?
How Teenagers Are Getting Around Age Restrictions
The answer often comes down to something called proxy betting. Many students are using their parents’ accounts to place wagers. One Manhattan father admitted to reporters that he opened a FanDuel account under his own name and then let his son use it. At the time, he didn’t think it was a big deal. “I just didn’t think anything about it. It was something that he and his friends were all doing,” he said.
This casual attitude toward underage betting has become surprisingly common. Max estimates that about 80% of the boys in his grade have placed bets, with around 40% gambling regularly.
But even without parental help, determined teenagers are finding ways to bet. Apps like Fliff have become popular gateways into sports wagering. Unlike traditional sportsbooks, Fliff markets itself as a “social gaming and sweepstakes platform” rather than a gambling site. The app gives users free daily dollars to bet on sports, and because it operates in a legal gray area, it doesn’t require users to be 21. In many states, users only need to be 18, and younger kids often lie about their age during signup. The app doesn’t verify identity until someone tries to withdraw money.
In the Classroom, Gambling Apps Are Everywhere
Max describes a school environment where students openly use gambling apps during class. “At school, it’s all kids with their gambling apps in class. And it never stops because it’s football season, then basketball, then baseball,” he told reporters.
One particularly concerning detail Max shared: the youngest gambler he knows is just 11 years old. Middle schoolers are now talking about betting regularly, something that was virtually unheard of just a few years ago.
The Science Behind Why Young People Are More Vulnerable
Keith Whyte, president of Safer Gambling Strategies, spoke with reporters about why underage gambling is such a serious problem. According to his organization’s research, 5% of children between the ages of 12 and 17 now meet the criteria for problem gambling. That represents a 400% increase in just two years.
The reason young people are so vulnerable has to do with brain development. The part of the brain responsible for decision-making and understanding consequences, the prefrontal cortex, isn’t fully developed until someone reaches their mid-20s. Meanwhile, the amygdala, which handles emotions and immediate reactions, develops much earlier. This creates an imbalance where teenagers feel the excitement and thrill of winning intensely, but struggle to properly assess risk or think through long-term consequences.
“The area of their brain responsible for decision-making and risk assessment isn’t fully developed. With gambling being so accessible and unregulated, it creates a hazardous mix,” Whyte explained.
Young people who develop gambling problems early in life often struggle with the behavior for years to come. Research consistently shows that the earlier someone starts gambling, the more likely they are to develop serious problems as adults.
As one father put it after watching his son and his friends get swept up in betting culture:
They believe they possess a unique skill and understanding that allows them to outsmart the system. It’s a typical teenage mindset where they think they’re smarter than adults.
Advertising Is Making the Problem Worse
One major factor fueling underage gambling is the sheer volume of gambling advertising young people encounter. Turn on any major sporting event, and you’ll be bombarded with betting ads featuring celebrities, promising easy wins and exciting action.
The rules around gambling advertising in the United States are relatively loose compared to other countries. Studies have found that 85% of people aged 11 to 24 report seeing gambling advertising on TV, and 66% have encountered gambling promotions on social media.
This constant exposure has a real impact. Research shows that young people who see more gambling ads are more likely to think positively about betting and more likely to gamble themselves. Even if they don’t place a bet immediately after seeing an ad, the advertisements shape their attitudes and make gambling seem like a normal part of being a sports fan.
Several countries have taken aggressive steps to limit gambling advertising aimed at young audiences. In Spain, for example, Royal Decree 958/2020 restricted gambling commercials to the hours between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m., banned sponsorship of sports teams, and prohibited welcome bonuses designed to attract new customers. Research examining the impact of these regulations found that they led to a permanent decrease in new gambling accounts and reduced the total amount of money wagered, particularly among people who hadn’t gambled before.
In the United Kingdom, strict rules prevent anyone who appears to be under 25 from appearing in gambling advertisements, and ads cannot be placed in media where more than 25% of the audience is under 18. UK data shows children’s exposure to gambling ads on TV has decreased by two-fifths since 2010, though children still see an average of 1.8 gambling ads per week.
Australia implemented regulations banning gambling ads during live sports broadcasts before 8:30 p.m., though critics note that many other forms of gambling promotion, such as stadium signage and team sponsorships, remain unrestricted.
In the United States, calls for federal regulation of gambling advertising have been growing louder, but concrete action has been slow to materialize.
What Other Places Are Doing to Protect Young People
Beyond advertising restrictions, several countries and states have implemented programs specifically designed to educate young people about gambling risks.
Virginia became the first U.S. state to pass legislation requiring schools to include gambling addiction education in their curriculum. The bill, which passed in 2022 with overwhelming bipartisan support, requires public schools to teach students how to recognize symptoms of problem gambling and understand the addictive potential of betting. However, the Virginia program has faced challenges because no specific funding was allocated for the initiative.
In Canada, programs like the YMCA’s Youth Gambling Awareness Program (YGAP) offer free educational workshops to students, parents, and educators. These interactive sessions teach young people about odds, randomness, financial literacy, and how to recognize warning signs of problem gambling. Research evaluating similar programs has found that they are effective at increasing knowledge about gambling, reducing misconceptions, and decreasing the number of at-risk gamblers.
Prevention programs that have been rigorously evaluated tend to focus on correcting false beliefs about gambling, teaching critical thinking skills, and helping young people understand that gambling should be viewed as entertainment rather than a way to make money.
The Role of Parents and Proxy Betting
One of the most significant factors enabling underage gambling is the involvement of parents, whether intentional or not. Some teenagers see their parents gamble online on platforms such as crypto slots.
Others are being allowed to gamble on sports, as many parents don’t fully grasp the risks of letting their child use their betting account “just for fun.” They see it as a harmless way for their kid to engage with sports, not realizing they’re helping establish potentially dangerous patterns.
Companies like FanDuel have started to address this issue directly. In 2024, FanDuel launched a program called “Trusted Voices: Conversations About Betting,” featuring former NBA player Randy Livingston and his wife Anita Smith. The program provides educational resources for parents and families, with particular emphasis on explaining what proxy betting is and why allowing someone under 21 to use your account is both illegal and harmful.
The legal age to bet on sports is 21 in most states, and those restrictions exist for good reasons rooted in brain development and addiction vulnerability. Parents need to understand that even if they’re monitoring the account and setting limits, allowing a teenager to place bets is normalizing gambling behavior at a critical developmental stage.
Understanding the Scope Across Different Countries
The problem of underage gambling isn’t limited to the United States. In the United Kingdom, the Gambling Commission’s 2024 survey found that 27% of young people aged 11 to 17 had spent their own money on gambling activities in the past year, with 1.5% experiencing problem gambling and another 1.9% at risk.
Australian research has similarly documented high rates of gambling advertising exposure among children, with studies finding that young people can identify gambling logos and brands with surprising accuracy.
In Canada, data from the Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey showed that 32% of students reported participating in gambling activities, with 4% showing symptoms of low to moderate gambling problems and 2% showing symptoms of high-severity problems.
These international figures underscore that this is a global issue requiring coordinated responses. Countries that have implemented comprehensive measures, including advertising restrictions, age verification requirements, and prevention education, tend to see better outcomes than those relying on industry self-regulation alone.
What Needs to Happen Next
The evidence is clear: sports betting is becoming normalized among teenagers and even younger children at an alarming rate. Max’s observations from his high school in Manhattan are being echoed in schools across the country and around the world. Students are draining their savings, sacrificing their academic performance, and potentially setting themselves up for lifelong struggles with gambling addiction.
The combination of aggressive advertising, easy access through proxy betting and apps operating in legal gray areas, and the developmental vulnerability of teenage brains has created a perfect storm. Young people are being exposed to gambling constantly, through commercials during games, sponsored jerseys, social media promotions, and conversations with friends who are already betting.
While some progress is being made with educational programs in schools, clearer age verification requirements, and growing awareness among parents, much more needs to be done. Stricter regulations on gambling advertising, better enforcement of age restrictions, increased funding for prevention and education programs, and continued research into what interventions work best would all help address this growing crisis.
For now, students like Max can only watch as more of their classmates get drawn into the cycle of betting, chasing losses, and missing out on what sports used to be about: the simple joy of watching a game with friends.
