Rutgers Study: Nearly Half of US Teens Are Gambling

Dr. Annelies De Vos · 2026-10-29

Nearly 43% of American kids between 13 and 17 gambled at least once in the past year. That's not a fringe statistic from a small survey. It comes from a national study out of Rutgers University, and it's the kind of number that makes you stop and reread it. The research team, led by Lia Nower, director of Rutgers' Center for Gambling Studies, surveyed 1,677 adolescents and young adults aged 13 to 27. The data was collected between April and July 2026. What they found gives the country something it hasn't really had before: a real national benchmark for how young people gamble. ### Why This Number Matters Gambling among teens isn't always obvious. It rarely looks like a kid sitting at a card table. More often it's a few dollars on a sports app, a scratch-off from a corner store, or a friendly wager in a group chat. Easy to miss. Easy to wave off as harmless. But the study didn't stop at participation. Among the young people who gambled, a notable share showed signs of problem gambling. That's the part worth paying attention to, because early patterns tend to stick. > "It provides a national benchmark for gambling participation" — and benchmarks are how you measure whether things are getting better or worse. ### What the Age Range Tells Us Including young adults up to 27 was a smart call. It lets researchers see the whole arc, from middle school through the early career years. If a 14-year-old picks up a habit, you can watch where it goes by 24. That's a window most studies don't get. A few things stand out from the findings: - Roughly 4 in 10 teens gambled in the past year - A meaningful portion of those who gambled showed problem-gambling signals - The data spans ages 13 to 27, capturing the transition into adulthood - It's the first national benchmark of its kind for youth gambling ### What Parents and Professionals Should Take Away If you work with teens, coach them, teach them, or raise them, this is a conversation worth having. Not a panic. A conversation. The tricky part is that gambling has gone digital, and digital is quiet. There's no casino floor, no cash on the table. Just a phone and a tap. That makes it harder to spot and easier to dismiss. So what helps? Asking direct questions. Knowing what apps are on a kid's phone. Talking about risk the same way we talk about drinking or driving. The study doesn't hand us a fix, but it does hand us a map. And knowing where the problem lives is the first step toward doing something about it. For researchers and policymakers, the benchmark is the real prize here. You can't track progress without a starting line. Now there's one.