Journeys Towards Harm Among Young Adult Sports Bettors: Dynamic Influences From Childhood to Early Adulthood

Abstract Sports betting increases the risk of gambling harm in young people, but little is known about their pathways into harmful betting and dynamic influences over time. This study explored journeys towards gambling harm among young Australian sports bettors and key sources of influence on their experiences, from childhood to early adulthood. Fifty people aged 18–25 years reporting moderate or high harm from sports betting on the Gambling Harm Scale were interviewed. Using thematic narrative analysis, the finding’s master theme was the permeation of pro-gambling influences into all stages of participants’ lives. During childhood, these influences were present in everyday settings including family, advertising and simulated gambling. During adolescence, exposure to pro-gambling influences escalated with advertising, peer normalisation and increased simulated gambling, resulting in strong gambling intentions. In early adulthood, participants were immersed in a gambling culture through gambling as a rite of passage into adulthood, strong peer influence and intense advertising. Today’s young adults are the first generation with routine exposure to pro-gambling influences throughout their lives. Saturation advertising since childhood has told them that sports betting is a fun, exciting and lucrative activity, integral to friendships and social status, and necessary to demonstrate their sport loyalty, sport knowledge and Australian identity. Protective influences from parents and safer gambling messages have only limited capacity to compete with these commercial determinants of harm. Efforts are needed to reverse the cultural embedding of gambling into sport, its normalisation in youth culture and to curtail sports betting sponsorship, advertising and inducements.