A national Rutgers University survey found that 42.7% of Americans aged 13 to 17 had taken part in at least one gambling activity during the previous year. The research covered a wider group of 1,677 people aged 13 to 27 and included both online and in-person behaviour.
The university's release says researchers examined 21 activities, from bingo, raffles and skill games to sports betting, crypto trading, esports wagers and prediction markets. That broad definition matters because the participation figure is not limited to regulated sportsbooks or casino products.
Among all respondents, 5.4% screened as high-risk problem gamblers. Within the group that had gambled during the previous year, 39.5% showed at least some symptoms of gambling-related harm and 10.3% fell into the high-risk category. The study overview puts the high-risk share among teen gamblers at 10.8%.
Family exposure emerged as an important association rather than proof of cause. Rutgers reported that 75.5% of teenagers classified as high risk had a family member who gambled, while 61.2% had gambled with a relative. People who believed someone in their household had a gambling problem were more than five times as likely to screen at high risk.
The researchers called for prevention education to begin in middle school and for broader safeguards around products that can sit outside conventional gambling rules. The survey is a prevalence snapshot based on self-reported behaviour, so its percentages describe the sampled population and screening results rather than a clinical diagnosis for every participant.
