The quantitative survey was carried out among a representative sample of 1,949 adolescents and young adults living in the poorest department of mainland France, and nine collective interviews were carried out with 42 young people. Three quarters (75.9%) themselves believe that gambling should be “less available or even prohibited”, and 82.9% agree with the statement according to which “gambling operators game (Winamax, FDJ, PMU, etc.) seek to make players addicted. Scratch games, lotteries and sports betting are the most popular. But the author of this survey financed by the department, sociologist Thomas Amadieu, highlights a “striking” result: adolescents (13-17 years old) especially experiment with betting in video games (such as “loot boxes”, loot boxes). ). “Young people have a critical view of the advertisements but say that it still makes them want it because they are celebrities, influencers, who say that it is possible to win,” Mr. Amadieu told AFP. “We are lagging behind in France. European neighbors – Spain, Belgium, Italy… – have acted to ban or limit advertising for gambling,” he notes.
If the share of young people affected by a particularly worrying gambling practice is only 2.7% of the sample, this could represent more than 7,500 young people in Seine-Saint-Denis by projecting these data. This minority, known as “vulnerable” young people, starts on average at 14 years old. Most of them saw their father or mother play and come from a precarious background. However, according to the study, “nearly half are in a situation of debt caused by gambling”. The socialist president of the department of Seine-Saint-Denis, Stéphane Troussel, had several times denounced in recent years “the fact that sports operators are using increasingly aggressive marketing techniques to encourage young people to spend considerable sums “. While the sports budget is threatened by severe cuts in France, Mr. Troussel highlighted Thursday to AFP “the proposal to increase the ceiling of the tax on sports betting, firstly to finance the continuation of sports programs – including those inherited from the Olympic Games.
