Adolescent betting on esports using cash and skins: Links with gaming, monetary gambling, and problematic gambling

Nerilee Hing; Lisa Lole; Alex Russell; Matthew Rockloff; Daniel King; Matthew Browne; Philip W S Newall; Nancy Greer

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0266571

Adolescent betting on esports using cash and skins: Links with gaming, monetary gambling, and problematic gambling

Nerilee Hing^*, Lisa Lole, Alex Russell, Matthew Rockloff, Daniel King, Matthew Browne, Philip W S Newall, Nancy Greer

^*Corresponding author for this work

School of Psychological Science

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review

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Abstract

Adolescents can easily access esports betting sites and place bets using cash or skins. This descriptive cross-sectional study examined the characteristics of adolescent esports bettors and relationships between their esports betting, video gaming activities, monetary gambling participation, and at-risk/problem gambling. Two survey samples of Australians aged 12–17 years were recruited through advertisements (n = 841) and online panel providers (n = 826). In both samples, gender and parents’ living situation did not differ by past-month esports cash and skin betting, but recent esports betting was associated with engaging in esports gaming activities such as playing and watching esports, and in monetary gambling activities. Past-month esports betting using cash and skins was significantly associated with at-risk/problem gambling. After controlling for recent monetary gambling, recent esports skin bettors were over 3 times more likely to meet criteria for at-risk/problem gambling. Esports betting using skins appears to pose risks for young people and is easily accessible through unlicensed operators.

Original language	English
Article number	e0266571
Number of pages	16
Journal	PLoS ONE
Volume	17
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266571
Publication status	Published - 5 May 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
NH, AR, MR, MB, PN, NG and DK received grant funding to conduct this research (no grant number assigned). Funding for this study was provided by the NSW Government’s Responsible Gambling Fund, with support from the NSW Office of Responsible Gambling https://www. responsiblegambling.nsw.gov.au. The funders reviewed the survey instrument for this study but had no role in data collection, analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Publisher Copyright:
Copyright: © 2022 Hing et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Keywords

Gambling
Gambling addiction
Advertising
Games
Sports
Adolescents
Video games
Impulsivity

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title = "Adolescent betting on esports using cash and skins: Links with gaming, monetary gambling, and problematic gambling",

abstract = "Adolescents can easily access esports betting sites and place bets using cash or skins. This descriptive cross-sectional study examined the characteristics of adolescent esports bettors and relationships between their esports betting, video gaming activities, monetary gambling participation, and at-risk/problem gambling. Two survey samples of Australians aged 12–17 years were recruited through advertisements (n = 841) and online panel providers (n = 826). In both samples, gender and parents{\textquoteright} living situation did not differ by past-month esports cash and skin betting, but recent esports betting was associated with engaging in esports gaming activities such as playing and watching esports, and in monetary gambling activities. Past-month esports betting using cash and skins was significantly associated with at-risk/problem gambling. After controlling for recent monetary gambling, recent esports skin bettors were over 3 times more likely to meet criteria for at-risk/problem gambling. Esports betting using skins appears to pose risks for young people and is easily accessible through unlicensed operators.",

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author = "Nerilee Hing and Lisa Lole and Alex Russell and Matthew Rockloff and Daniel King and Matthew Browne and Newall, {Philip W S} and Nancy Greer",

note = "Funding Information: NH, AR, MR, MB, PN, NG and DK received grant funding to conduct this research (no grant number assigned). Funding for this study was provided by the NSW Government{\textquoteright}s Responsible Gambling Fund, with support from the NSW Office of Responsible Gambling https://www. responsiblegambling.nsw.gov.au. The funders reviewed the survey instrument for this study but had no role in data collection, analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Publisher Copyright: Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 Hing et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.",

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AU - Newall, Philip W S

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N1 - Funding Information: NH, AR, MR, MB, PN, NG and DK received grant funding to conduct this research (no grant number assigned). Funding for this study was provided by the NSW Government’s Responsible Gambling Fund, with support from the NSW Office of Responsible Gambling https://www. responsiblegambling.nsw.gov.au. The funders reviewed the survey instrument for this study but had no role in data collection, analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Publisher Copyright: Copyright: © 2022 Hing et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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Adolescent betting on esports using cash and skins: Links with gaming, monetary gambling, and problematic gambling

Abstract

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Keywords

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