ONLINE GAMBLING AMONG young males in Ireland quadruples between the ages of 17/18 and 20, according to a new study.

The ESRI study, titled ‘Young people who gamble in Ireland’, has been compiled using data from 4,500 young people who were involved in the ‘Growing up in Ireland’ series.

The young people were interviewed in 2015-16, when they were 17-18 years old, and a follow-up interview was conducted in 2018-19, when they were 20 years old.

Today we publish 'Young people who gamble in Ireland'.

This study finds a four-fold increase in online gambling among young adults - driven by males who play team sports.

Read a summary of the research:https://t.co/L0kynvSCAX pic.twitter.com/LDEC2mvL8i

— ESRI Dublin (@ESRIDublin) January 5, 2023

Between these timeframes, there was an almost four-fold increase in engagement in online gambling among young people, mostly driven by males.

At 20 years, 9.3%  of people were engaging in online gambling, up from 2.6% at 17 years.

The increase is more stark among males, rising from 4.4% at age 17 to 15.8% at 20 years.

For females, 0.9% were engaged in online gambling at 17 years, which rose to 2.9% at 20 years.
11.6% of males ages 20 were also found to be regularly gambling, with regular gambling described as gambling at least once a month.

This is compared to 2.7% of females aged 20.

The study also found a “statistically significant” association between “playing team sports and regularly gambling”.

A young person who played team sports at both 20 and 17 years is almost three times more likely to regularly gamble when compared to those with no engagement in team sports.

For the male only sample, “a 4.02 higher odds of regularly gambling is estimated”.

The study concluded that “participation in team sports is revealed to have a dose-response like association with online and regularly gambling for young males”.

It adds: “The fndings of the empirical analysis provide support for the theory that the social norms that develop within the young male adult sports team environment may play a role in generating increased gambling behaviour among team members.

“As such, team and sports environments also provide suitable forums for which gambling awareness and behaviours can be discussed and addressed.

“The findings provide evidence to inform the development of policies and legislation in the area of online and regular gambling, and its links to young people and sports participation.”