Gambling Trends

There’s a paradigm shift emerging from thought leaders who focus on responsible gambling. For years, it was the player’s sole responsibility to protect themselves from harmful play.

There’s now a growing acknowledgement that operators and regulators can and should do more in reducing the harm a vulnerable player may experience. Both brick-and-mortar establishments and online platforms are showing signs of taking a more serious approach to implementing robust responsible gambling programs because they know it will help their businesses.

These newer programs aim to making gambling healthier and safer for those who choose to play, focusing on:

• Supporting harm reduction and safer gambling through informed play and robust responsible gambling tools
• Reducing harms to affected others by identifying risk behaviors
• Addressing financial harms with updated credit and cash policies
• Reinforcing ideal consumer behaviors
• Ensuring staff receive thorough training

By transitioning to more inclusive language and practices, these programs seek to diminish stigma and encourage those to seek the help they need to get healthy.

Prediction markets are online platforms where people buy and sell contracts based on the outcome of future events. Participants can wager on a wide range of topics, including elections, economic indicators, sports results, entertainment awards and other real-world events. The value of these contracts rises or falls depending on how likely the market believes a particular outcome is to occur, allowing users to profit if they correctly predict the result. Although some prediction market operators describe their products as forecasting or information tools, they involve risking money on uncertain outcomes in hopes of winning a financial reward. Because participants stake money on events largely outside their control and can experience financial gains or losses based on the outcome, many researchers, regulators and gambling experts consider prediction markets to be a form of gambling.

Cryptocurrency is a type of digital currency that exists online and is typically not issued or backed by a government or central bank. Popular cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum can be bought, sold and traded through online exchanges. Their prices are determined largely by market demand and speculation, causing values to rise and fall rapidly. While some people use cryptocurrency as an investment or payment method, many individuals purchase it primarily in hopes of profiting from future price increases.

Cryptocurrency trading can share many characteristics with gambling. People often risk money on highly uncertain outcomes with the expectation of winning more money, despite having little control over market movements. Prices can change dramatically in a matter of hours, creating excitement, anticipation and the possibility of significant gains or losses. Some forms of cryptocurrency trading, including short-term speculation, leveraged trading and meme coin investing, are especially risky because they rely heavily on chance, market sentiment and unpredictable events. For these reasons, many researchers and public health experts view speculative cryptocurrency trading as a gambling-like activity that can contribute to financial harm and addictive behaviors for some individuals.

Sweepstakes casinos are online platforms that offer casino-style games such as slots, poker and blackjack while operating under a sweepstakes model rather than a traditional gambling license. Instead of wagering money directly, users typically purchase virtual coins for entertainment play and receive a second type of currency, often called sweepstakes coins, as a bonus. Sweepstakes coins can be used to play games and, in many cases, can be redeemed for cash or prizes. Although operators argue that no purchase is necessary to participate, many users obtain sweepstakes coins through purchases, creating an experience that closely resembles traditional online gambling.

Many gambling researchers, regulators and public health advocates view sweepstakes casinos as gambling or gambling-like products because participants can risk something of value for the opportunity to win money or prizes. The games often use the same designs, sounds, rewards and marketing strategies found in traditional online casinos. This can normalize gambling behavior, increase exposure to gambling activities and potentially encourage people—especially young adults—to transition to traditional forms of gambling. For individuals vulnerable to gambling-related harm, sweepstakes casinos may present many of the same risks associated with regulated online gambling, including financial losses, excessive play and the development of problematic gambling behaviors.