Game players may not be betting real money, but they may be priming themselves for the real thing
This past June, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially recognized game addiction as a mental health concern by adding “gaming disorder” to its International Classification of Diseases.
For many parents of video-game playing kids, the transition from casual gaming to having a serious problem isn’t hard to imagine. Video games can provide easy thrills, but players who become too fixated may experience “significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning” — the exact criteria identified by the WHO to diagnose gaming disorder.
One type of video game could be even riskier, suggests new research from the Canadian Association of Mental Health (CAMH). In a study published in the journal BMC Public Health, the CAMH looked at how social casino games affect the behaviour of adolescent Canadians between the ages of 13 and 19.
Social casino games are free gambling-themed games that are open to anyone. They let players try casino table games, slots, poker, or bingo to win rewards like points or in-game prizes; there’s no real money involved, so such games are not legally classified as gambling and therefore remain unregulated.
“Adolescents' participation in seemingly risk-free social casino games is a concern because we know that early exposure to gambling activities is a risk factor for developing gambling problems in the future," said Dr. Tara Elton-Marshall, scientist at CAMH's Institute for Mental Health Policy Research.
The research appears to bear that out. Of around 10,000 teens surveyed from Ontario, Saskatchewan, and Labrador, 12% said they had played social casino games in the past three months. Those teens, when compared with peers who did not play, were significantly more likely to engage in monetary gambling, either online or in real life.
Elton-Marshall clarified that the correlation they saw could be explained both ways; it’s possible that adolescents who gamble for real are seeking out these free games. “[But] there is evidence that social casino gaming may build excitement for gambling and encourage the transition into monetary gambling,” she said.
The CAMH said between 37% and 50% of young people who gambled for money and played social games met criteria for low-to-moderate or high problem gambling, including a tendency to miss activities like team sports due to gambling. In contrast, only 10% of teens who engaged in real gambling but not social casino games met such criteria.
Another possibility, according to Elton-Marshall, is that social casino games give players higher odds of winning than actual monetary gambling. That means young people could falsely overestimate their degree of luck or skill, setting them up for losses when sitting at real-life tables and slots.
“With the growing number of social casino games over the past five years, and high levels of screen time among young people, we believe our findings may under-represent social casino gaming by adolescents today,” said Dr. Livia Veselka, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at CAMH and lead author of the study.
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