More than one in 10 boys between the ages of 10 and 16 admit to gambling online although the legal age is 18, a survey by the Trimbos addiction institute has shown.

Boys gamble online much more often than girls, the four-yearly survey into teenage addiction and mental health showed, with 11.4% of boys accessing gambling sites compared to 1.9% of girls.

“The figures are worrying,” researcher Tony van Rooij told NOS. “Every online gambler  under 18 who gambles for money is one too many.”

Teenage gamblers avoid age checks by using someone’s else’s account or playing on illegal websites based abroad.

Teenagers are more vulnerable to developing an addiction, Van Rooij said, which will be more difficult to combat later in life.

Vaping on the rise

Vaping is also becoming more popular among youngsters, with 8% of primary school children saying they had tried it.  Some 14.3 % of teenagers said they had vaped in the last month, of which 4% said they vaped daily.

The percentage of teenagers who smoke cigarettes daily has not gone down since 2017, remaining at around 2.2%, with 8.5% lighting up in the last month.

Earlier figures from the institute showed that youngsters who vape also smoke, debunking the myth that the one discourages the other.

The use of laughing gas has gone down, from 6.7% in 2019 to 2% in 2023. This may have to do with the ban on the sale and possession of laughing gas and more awareness of the physical consequences of its use, Trimbos said.