Teen Sports Betting: A Growing Concern as Advertising Meets In-Class Education
Ulysses Fitzgerald, a high school senior in Smyrna, Tennessee, thought sports betting would be an easy way to make money. Inspired by social media influencers showcasing big wins, he used $25 from his 18th birthday to place his first bet. “This guy won like $5,000 because he predicted that this player wouldn’t get this many points,” Fitzgerald recalled of one influencer’s post. “I was like, that seems like free money.”
What followed was a cycle of increasingly larger bets with progressively smaller returns. “I was losing way more than I was making,” he said. Fitzgerald eventually quit, but not before worrying about the potential for addiction. His story is not unique.
As the NCAA men’s and women’s tournament Final Four semifinals captivate national attention, experts warn that many teenagers are engaged in another high-stakes game off the court: sports betting. While U.S. gambling laws vary by state and activity, and minors are legally prohibited from participating—with most platforms requiring users to be at least 21—the reach among youth is significant. A January 2024 report by Common Sense Media, a nonprofit focused on media and technology for families, found that 36% of surveyed teenage boys ages 11 to 17 reported gambling in the prior year. For those 17 and older, that number rises to 49%.
The trend is so prevalent that 83% of teachers surveyed by Next Gen Personal Finance (NGPF), a nonprofit providing financial education resources, said they had recently observed or heard of students participating in online gambling or sports betting. The survey, conducted in November 2023, included 1,004 educators.
The Classroom Becomes a Frontline for Financial Literacy
“You’re seeing the advertising all the time at all the sporting events, but they’re not really seeing all the losses that occur,” said Wally Luckeydoo, who teaches personal finance at Smyrna High School, where Fitzgerald is a student. Fitzgerald himself said the classroom lessons helped him better understand the risks.
To bypass age restrictions, students may use older family members’ credentials, bet on offshore platforms, or employ fake IDs, teachers told CNBC. The legal sports betting industry states it has robust safeguards. “The legal sports betting industry is unequivocal in its zero tolerance for underage illegal betting,” said Joe Maloney, president of the Sports Betting Alliance, whose members include BetMGM, DraftKings, and FanDuel. He noted that legal operators use age-verification technology and prohibit account sharing. Platforms like FanDuel state they “verify all accounts for age and eligibility” and close any found to be used by minors.
Despite these measures, the gap between pervasive marketing and accessible education leaves teens vulnerable. This has prompted educators like Luckeydoo and Brian Suhovsky, a math and personal finance teacher at AECI 1 Charter School in the Bronx, New York, to integrate gambling lessons into their curriculum. Suhovsky was inspired by student chatter centered on parlays and point spreads. “Every single student is telling you about their latest win,” he said. “But that’s missing the point. What about all the stuff we just lost?”
Teaching the Odds: From Roulette Wheels to Long-Term Investing
Suhovsky uses a roulette wheel to demonstrate the house edge and probability, making the abstract math of gambling tangible. “We’re actually teaching you in the classroom about what could potentially happen to you if you were to get addicted to this,” Luckeydoo explained.
A key pedagogical shift is contrasting the short-term volatility of betting with the long-term nature of investing. Senior Jeanine Loko noted the distinction: “When it comes to stocks, you accumulate your money over the years. It’s not as risky.” Sophomore Joseph Mayo added, “I don’t think it should be something that’s your main income. That’s just a way to ruin your life.”
A Patchwork of State Standards Leaves a Critical Gap
The rapid expansion of legal sports betting since the 2018 Supreme Court decision that struck down a federal ban—now legal in 39 states and Washington, D.C.—has outpaced educational policy. While the number of states requiring a personal finance course for high school graduation has grown (30 states now have such a requirement, per the Council for Economic Education), very few have academic standards that explicitly address gambling risks.
Utah, which first mandated personal finance in 2008, is among the few that specifically include instruction on the differences between saving, investing, speculation, and gambling. Oklahoma and Wisconsin have also incorporated gambling understanding into their standards. In 2023, Massachusetts launched the nation’s first dedicated youth sports betting prevention curriculum, though it is separate from personal finance courses.
New York’s recent mandate for K-12 financial literacy, phasing in this fall, covers budgeting, credit, debt, and investing, and includes risk management. However, it does not specifically mandate gambling education. Suhovsky argues this oversight is critical. “If we’re not teaching about this to our students, our most vulnerable students, when are you going to teach it to them?” he asked.
This article incorporates data and survey findings from Common Sense Media (January 2024 report) and Next Gen Personal Finance (November 2023 educator survey). Teacher insights are based on direct interviews with educators in Tennessee and New York. Information on state academic standards and industry policies is drawn from public state education department documents and statements from the Sports Betting Alliance and individual platform terms.
