“[O]lder Americans are the fastest-growing segment of gambling addicts,” write Peter Jaret and Bill Hogan in the AARP Bulletin published by the American Association for Retired PersonS (AARP). Then things got much worse.

That quote is from 2014. Back then, most problem gamblers had to travel to casinos to lose their life savings. The article documents several high rollers who steadily squandered fortunes playing slot machines. In 12 years, however, the problem has become much worse.

In the May/June 2026 issue of the AARP Bulletin, John Rosengren updates the picture since the Supreme Court decision in 2018 that effectively legalized online gambling almost everywhere in the U.S.

In 2014, the AARP cautioned about “grief gambling” by spouses mourning the loss of a partner. In 2026, the causes for elder gambling addiction broadened out to “more stressors related to health,” including “gambling becoming a way of escape, to numb some of that physical or emotional pain.”

We recently published a piece at AddictionNews about how the use of substances or behaviors to displace stress can also make those behaviors and substances more addictive. The AARP Bulletin cites anecdotal evidence that senior citizens who have “been fine gambling recreationally most of their lives” can become addicted to gambling when it is used to treat stress.

Are the gambling apps targeting senior citizens? You bet they are! It’s illegal for them to target children, and the college kids they recruit don’t have deep pockets, so seniors beware. We broke the news here about Comcast/Xfinity replacing cable boxes in senior centers with gambling-enabled technology.

Rosengren interviews Don Feeney, the director of research and planning for the Minnesota State Lottery, who admits they design promotions that appeal to risk factors for gambling addiction:

• isolation
• a sense of guilt
• stigma
• forbidden fruit

And you thought it was just a lottery ticket! It sounds like the gambling platforms are actively trying to promote gambling as a cure for stress and loneliness, knowing full well that using gambling for stress management can accelerate addiction. Rosengren writes:

The consequences can be devastating for those who are retired, on fixed incomes and with no means to recoup losses once their savings accounts are wiped out.

Unlike the quaint days of 2014, when the AARP estimated senior citizens accounted for roughly 8% of gambling addicts, people over 50 years of age made more than 30% of the calls to Nevada’s problem gambling hotline, 1-800-GAMBLER.

Rosengren cites a 2025 study that online gambling advertising is focused on those states with the largest number of residents over the age of 65: California, Texas, and Florida. A review by England’s Royal College of Pharmacists, writes Rosengren, found that “online gambling during the pandemic increased more for people over 65 than it did for any other age group.”

Rosengren describes the numerous ways gambling apps have been designed to be addictive, from allowing continuous betting as often as once per second, to optimizing for “near-misses” that dangle wins just outside the reach of gamblers. He quotes legal scholar Richard Daynard that the apps are “designed to be addictive.”

More than a decade of warnings about gambling addiction and senior citizens has not slowed in the least the predatory behavior of gambling platforms. The AARP Bulletin is short on answers, too. They bravely note that gambling addiction recovery has been taken over by the gambling industry itself and recast, not as a problem caused by the platforms, but as “an issue that rests with the individual who develops the gambling addiction.”

So, today in America, it is okay to target senior citizens by offering them a fake cure for loneliness, pain, and stress that depletes their bank accounts and adds poverty to their other problems. In many cases, the state governments charged with protecting senior citizens profit from partnerships with the gambling platforms.

What about the Federal Government? Right now, it looks like the U.S. Congress is more likely to block restrictions on gambling. In fact, the gambling platforms are betting on it. They’re plowing money into the midterm elections in an attempt to hold off a wave of overdue restrictions. 

For the time being, the only way to protect yourself and your loved ones from gambling addiction is to stay informed about the problem and the resources available through websites such as AddictionNews.com.

Written by Steve O’Keefe. First published June 29, 2026.

Sources:

“Many Older Americans Are Drawn to Online Gambling as Industry Booms,” AARP Bulletin, May 15, 2026.

“Losing Everything to Gambling Addiction,” AARP Bulletin, January 2, 2014.

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