Simulated gambling among young people in Denmark

This presentation presents findings from a recent Danish study of simulated gambling among young people. The heavy online marketing of these free-to-play simulated gambling games, which covers a wide range of games with embedded or gambling features, and their growing popularity among young people have led to concern over their impact on younger generations. Past research has established that simulated gambling is merging with monetary gambling and that simulated gambling advertising often target young people. Other concerns are that simulated gambling may lead to faulty conceptions of winning chances, to transitions into and normalization of monetary gambling. In many jurisdictions, including most Scandinavian countries, there is limited knowledge of the prevalence of simulated gambling and the correlation between simulated gambling, monetary gambling and gambling problems among young people. Similarly little is known about how young people perceive and use these particular games. Findings in this presentation are based on a survey among a group of young Danes aged 12-16 years and a series of semi structured interviews with selected survey participants. The presentation will focus on the prevalence of simulated gambling, the most popular types of games, correlation between simulated gambling, monetary gambling and gambling related problems.

The preliminary findings have several implications: Simulated gambling seems to be a rapidly developing phenomenon that needs attention from researchers and professionals. In terms of prevention, there seem to be a need for educating young people and their families about the nature of simulated gambling, including the in-game reward systems and their effects on game users.