The Responsible Gaming Foundation will hold a free online webinar on Oct. 6 aimed at helping parents, guardians and teachers recognise and address gambling risks among young people. Advance registration is required for the session, which starts at 16:00 EEST.
Titled “The Conversation Starts Here: Equipping Educators and Families to Address Youth Gambling,” the webinar will focus on warning signs of problematic behaviour and ways to discuss gambling with teenagers without creating additional barriers. GameSpectrum News reported on the planned webinar.
The programme will feature Lisa Couperus, the Responsible Gambling Council’s associate director of education and programs, and Jennifer Reynolds, PhD, its associate director of research and knowledge mobilization. They will outline practical approaches for conversations with teenagers and how evidence-based methods can encourage a healthier understanding of risk.
The organisers point to a digital environment in which the boundary between video games and gambling is becoming harder to distinguish. They say teenagers are encountering gambling-related content more often and can access online gambling and sports-betting platforms with increasing ease.
Among the behaviours adults may need to notice are increased secrecy around money, sudden mood changes, withdrawal from family and friends, and declining school performance. The organisers say early recognition of such changes can be important to prevention, while informed, open communication with trusted adults offers stronger protection than restrictions or blocking tools alone.
The scale of youth participation remains difficult to measure fully. A 2025 National Council on Problem Gambling factsheet put the global share of under-18s who had gambled in the previous 12 months at 17.9%, or about 160 million young people, while 10.3% had gambled online. It also said research remains limited, particularly on emerging technologies, digital trends and vulnerable groups.
A systematic review of adolescent online-gambling studies likewise found wide variation in estimates of problematic gambling, from 0.77% to 57.5%, reflecting differences in measures, samples and timeframes. The review found online gambling disorder in 0.89% to 1% of adolescents and called for better assessment tools and further research.
The Responsible Gambling Council, whose staff will speak at the session, said in a February campaign that gambling is now accessible around the clock through smartphones and social media. Its youth resources include conversation guidance, warning signs, legal information and links to support services.
