I don’t remember when I placed my first wager, but I’m pretty sure it was even before I could speak. You see, I grew up the fifth child out of nine, and gambling was the family pastime.

I was teethed on a deck of cards, as the saying goes. My family played Go Fish, Solitaire, and Crazy 8s, but unlike other families, there was always money riding on the outcome of each game.

My father was quite strict about playing for money, even if it was only for pennies. If you didn’t have any money, no problem: My father kept a score sheet showing exactly how much each child owed. I’m pretty sure my first allowance was confiscated to pay gambling debts.

You think I’m exaggerating, but one Christmas, my father put twenty-dollar bills into all our Christmas stockings, then on Christmas Day, he produced the ledger of gambling debts and proceeded to reclaim our brief bounty. He learned the wrong lesson from Scrooge!

My half-dozen uncles all ran similar gambling operations, and several of my cousins developed serious gambling problems. I gambled all through high school and college, often earning my spending money playing poker and euchre. I developed a real distaste for losing, however, and refused to participate in so-called “burn games” where the loser has to match the pot, and losses can be catastrophic.

I was 19 years old when I first went to Las Vegas, and I lived there for three months, eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner at casino buffets, yet I never wagered so much as a quarter the whole time I was there. Gambling had ceased to be a financial lure to me and represented only an opportunity for social companionship.

My father bet on horses for many years before he realized he could not beat the track without breaking the law. Then he played the lottery for many years, even stuffing scratch-off tickets in our Christmas stockings once the lottery came to Michigan.

I earned a degree in economics at Michigan State University, and I would scold my father about playing the lottery. I gave away my scratch-offs and rejected appeals to pool funds and buy lottery tickets. Then my Dad did the unthinkable: He won the lottery! Not the big prize, but enough to wipe out his losses from decades of gambling.

In this little vignette from my childhood, you have learned more about how children become gambling addicts than you will find in The New York Times‘ deep dive into children and gambling addiction. 

Jessica Gross, an opinion writer for The Times, talks with pediatricians and researchers and finds there’s a growing problem with teenage gambling addiction, yet we know very little about it. Is it a growing problem? 

One pediatrician specializing in addiction problems says problems are showing up at younger ages and without comorbidities. Gambling addiction diagnoses are up 60% since 2018 in states that have legalized sports gambling, but the lowest age bracket covered is 18-29. Is anyone keeping track of teenage gambling addiction?

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health provides some numbers:

• Children as young as 10 years old have been diagnosed with a gambling disorder.
• A majority of children entering high school have gambled at least once in the past year.
• Teens who gamble are more likely to also use illegal drugs.

The Times interviews Lia Nower, Director of the Center for Gambling Studies at Rutgers University School of Social Work, who makes an interesting distinction among children showing signs of problem gambling.

Some are responsive to cognitive behavioral therapy that educates them about gambling math, gambling risks, and alternative activities. Another group, however, is more resistant. These are children who have suffered adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). These kids often need medication, talk therapy, and/or other mental health services, Nower tells The Times.

If the gambling is done to displace stress, it is more likely to lead to compulsive gambling than if it is done for entertainment purposes or as a social activity.

This appears to be one more corroboration for the Unified Theory of Addiction, which posits that the source of both behavioral compulsions and substance use disorders is the displacement of stress, not the properties of the substances.

Right now, the story of children becoming gambling addicts is just that: A collection of anecdotal evidence with almost no scientific underpinning. Let’s hope we don’t raise a generation of kids with gambling problems before we take action to limit the spread of gambling opportunities for children.

Written by Steve O’Keefe. First published July 7, 2026.

Sources:

“Gambling Addiction Starts in Middle School,” The New York Times, June 27, 2026.

“Gambling disorder diagnoses spike in states that legalized sports betting, study shows,” NBC News, June 26, 2026.

“Risks of introducing gambling to youth,” Massachusetts Department of Public Health, 2026.

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