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“One child was in intermediate, about 11 to 12 years old, and his parents were very angry because he would sleep at school. He was not involved in family life and was completely isolated from the outside world,” she said.
The boy had been using his mother’s credit card to fund his online gambling habit.
“We found out his mother’s credit card was overdrawn by more than $16,000 because he was spending all that money on online gambling and he was up all night gambling,” she said.
Ahoni said thousands of young people and their parents had used Mapu Maia services, but he believed that was just the tip of the iceberg as many were too ashamed to talk about the issue.
The service is specifically for young people aged 13 to 17 years and has a team of clinicians and health promoters who deliver a number of programs across New Zealand targeting the harms of youth gambling.
Ahoni said sports betting sites specifically target young people.
“There’s a lot of advertising and marketing around online and gaming, and I think there’s a lot of marketing towards young people,” she said.
She told RNZ checking point Social media is being used more and more frequently to engage young people.
“The industry is using these platforms to specifically target young people. They are not using social media to target the older generation. We believe they are specifically targeting young people when they use social media,” she said.
She said she understood that regulating online gambling sites was a challenge for the government because many were based overseas, but said more education and support was needed.
Ahoni said gambling issues also have to be included in discussions about youth mental health.
“Gambling has moved from slot bars in the community to unregulated online venues. You can gamble in the privacy of your own home, you can gamble with minors,” she said.
The Department of Health’s Gambling Harm Prevention and Reduction Strategy 2022/23 to 2024/25 said research into gambling among secondary school pupils found that one in three pupils had gambled at some point in their lives.
The link between online gaming features and gambling also poses a risk for youth gambling problems.
Tasmanian professor Aaron Drummond, formerly of the University of Waikato, said studies in New Zealand, Australia and the United States showed people with signs of a gambling problem were more likely to spend more money on online games.
One of the features in question is called “loot boxes.”
“From what we know, this is very concerning. People with symptoms of problem gambling also tend to spend more on loot boxes, and recent evidence suggests that people who are exposed to these loot boxes are more likely to turn to traditional gambling behaviors later in life,” he said.
In Australia, online games with loot boxes must be rated M.
Drummond said people spend an average of $10 to $12 a month on loot boxes, but some spend up to $1,000 a month.
He said the number of loot boxes appearing in the game has increased.
“One interesting thing we found is that income does not affect how much people spend on loot boxes. In fact, within each income bracket, those with higher spending are consistently the ones with the worst gambling problems, so loot boxes tend to be particularly appealing to those who have trouble controlling their gambling behavior,” he said.
The Problem Gambling Foundation said it had noticed an increase in the number of young clients under 25 seeking support for the harms of online gambling.
They say the current Gambling Act 2003 is outdated and does not mention today’s online gambling scenario.
In a statement checking pointThe Ministry of Interior said, “In March this year, the Cabinet made a decision in principle to regulate online casino gambling.
“The department is assisting the Home Affairs Minister in preparing a report for Cabinet on the high-level design of the regulatory system.”
The company said it was “mindful of the need to ensure operators have effective age verification systems in place and that tools to reduce harmful gambling will be a key component of the new regulations.”
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