More common than it seems
According to Spain’s ESTUDES 2025 survey, 13.0% of students aged 14 to 18 gambled money online in the past year: 20.7% of boys and 5.3% of girls. In venues, 20.9%. Their most common online games are roulette and sports betting. All the data is in the market.
Signs
- Money missing at home, or money and gifts appearing with no explanation.
- A phone hidden away or glued to them during matches, even leagues they never watched.
- New vocabulary: odds, accumulators, stake, tipster, bonuses, cash-out.
- Mood swings tied to sports results.
- Friends who bet, tips groups on Telegram or Discord, betting influencers.
- Asking for money often, selling things, or accounts and cards you do not know about.
How to talk about it
Lectures work badly with teenagers. Curiosity and facts work better. Ask what they know about betting and who they learnt it from. Then look together at how the house always wins: the roulette simulator, the fee hidden in the odds or why tipsters look like experts. Working out the trick for yourself convinces more than any ban.
Prevention
- Turn on parental controls on phones and consoles, and check which cards are linked to app stores.
- Talk about betting ads when they come on: who pays for the ad and why.
- Look at your own habits: children of parents who gamble start earlier.
If the problem is serious, the advice in How can you help a partner or relative with a gambling problem? also applies to children.