Trends in 14–16-year-old adolescents’ weekly gambling from 2008 to 2017: The role of alcohol use and socioeconomic status

In Finland the new minimum legal gambling age was raised to 18 years old between 2010 and 2011. The main purpose of this study was to assess temporal trends of adolescent gambling from 2008 to 2017, according to adolescents’ socio-economic status and alcohol use. The study based on cross-sectional School Health Promotion Study, which examines adolescents’ health and health behaviours. Study years were analyzed separately via cross tabulations and logistic regression models.

Weekly gambling decreased among both boys and girls after the age limit of gambling was raised. Low levels of parental education and unemployment as well as adolescent frequent alcohol use increased the likelihoods of weekly gambling. Unlike the general decreasing trend observed for weekly gambling, after the age limit was raised weekly gambling remained high among boys who were frequently drinking alcohol and had unemployed parents with low levels of education. Among girls who were frequently drinking alcohol and had parents with low levels of education, weekly gambling increased instead. The prevalence of weekly gambling among the boys frequently drinking alcohol in 2017 was 79.3%, whereas the corresponding prevalence was 9.8% for boys not frequently drinking alcohol and with highly educated, employed parents. The corresponding figures for girls were 62.1% and 0.6%, respectively.

The overall decreasing trend in weekly gambling was not observed among socioeconomically deprived adolescents who were frequent alcohol users. It seems that adolescents’ gambling is associated with social inequalities. Therefore, information on gambling trends among different adolescent groups is important for health policy. Disclosure of interest: The Gambling Harms survey was funded by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Finland, within the objectives of the §52 Appropriation of the Lotteries Act. Daily work of the author (since August 2021) at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland, was also funded by the Ministry.