More and more youngsters are heading down to the kiosk to place bets, according to new figures from the gambling addiction organisation Center for Ludomani.
The statistics showed that a quarter of the people who received treatment for gambling addiction in 2013 were under the age of 24 – a 350 percent increase compared to 2007.
"There are more temptations than ever,” Christina Ilsø Metral, a project development consultant with Center for Ludomani, told DR Nyheder.
”We see it in commercials on the street and online. When there are so many temptations, there will be some pitfalls. Now we can see that a good portion of young people are being affected.”
Gambling addictions can have serious consequences for young people, Metral said. The issues can be social as well as financial, and the current laws are inadequate.
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More control needed
A DR P4 København radio program recently showed that the problem was particularly prevalent at kiosks. It sent out two 16-year-old boys to bet on sports at ten kiosks, and they did so without any problems at all ten.
”It's under control online, but at the kiosks there isn't that control at all,” Metral said. ”We hope the area will be tightened up because there is clearly a need for it.”
Metral said that a possible solution could be the establishment of gambling ID cards – such as the one the government proposed in January to do away with gambling crime – that would prevent under-18s betting.
