# The Hidden Way Games Are Training Kids to Gamble

An episode of [Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1082244480), 25 Mar 2026, 14 min.

Audio: https://mgln.ai/e/187/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/fa326977-3de5-4283-9b8b-af3500c58607/b69b2795-5503-4de1-ac91-af460017906e/a13b554f-72fc-421c-802b-b40f00bf8062/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=a05f1702-0c0e-4b0f-8014-af460017907c

What if your child is learning to gamble… without ever placing a bet? From loot boxes to “harmless” game rewards, today’s episode exposes the subtle systems inside kids’ games that are shaping how they think about money, risk, and reward. New research shows a clear pattern: exposure leads to normalisation—and normalisation leads to real gambling. If your child plays games, this isn’t optional listening. KEY POINTS • 75% of kids (10–17) are exposed to gambling-like features in games • Loot boxes mimic poker machines with random reward systems • Watching gambling-style content normalises the behaviour • “Practice gambling” (social casino games) builds familiarity without risk • Attitudes - not peer pressure - drive real-world gambling behaviour • Early exposure significantly increases the likelihood of gambling later QUOTE OF THE EPISODE “Once gambling feels normal, the step to doing it for real becomes tiny.” RESOURCES MENTIONED • Belgian longitudinal study on kids and gambling exposure • Games referenced: Roblox, Fortnite, FIFA • Boys: Raising Strong Young Men from the Inside Out by Dr Justin Coulson ACTION STEPS FOR PARENTS • Know the game mechanics (not just the game name) • Call it out clearly: explain how it mirrors real gambling • Set firm spending boundaries (no in-game purchases) • Watch what they watch (streams matter more than you think) • Have ongoing conversations about how games are designed to hook them See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:05] Speaker 1: Hello, this is the Happy Families Podcast. Today we're talking
[0:08] Speaker 1: about something that might be happening in your house right
[0:10] Speaker 1: now without you even realizing it. Your children may be
[0:13] Speaker 1: learning how to gamble while they're playing video games. They
[0:17] Speaker 1: don't have to be on any of the betting apps.
[0:19] Speaker 1: They could just be playing video games and being groomed
[0:22] Speaker 1: into gambling by big tech. New research out of Belgium
[0:26] Speaker 1: has tracked more than five hundred young people over a
[0:29] Speaker 1: twelve month period and found something that parents I think
[0:33] Speaker 1: absolutely need to know. Kids who interact with gambling like
[0:36] Speaker 1: features in their games are significantly more likely to start
[0:40] Speaker 1: gambling for real money. And the frightening part of this,
[0:44] Speaker 1: we're not just talking about teenagers. This study looked at
[0:46] Speaker 1: kids as young as ten. In today's Doctor's Desk episode
[0:50] Speaker 1: of the Happy Families podcast, we break down the study,
[0:52] Speaker 1: look at what happened in the study, what's happening with
[0:55] Speaker 1: our kids, and what we can do about it. Stay
[0:58] Speaker 1: with us, that's next.
[1:04] Speaker 2: Mary Kwalski.
[1:05] Speaker 1: Escape since a censory overload using the gaming platform roadblocks,
[1:10] Speaker 1: but the seventeen year old is worried. Gameplay feels increasingly
[1:14] Speaker 1: like gambling, rolling dice and dependent on your luck you
[1:18] Speaker 1: get different pets. To me, bledanly feels like the whole
[1:21] Speaker 1: point of the game is gambling. Goday, Welcome to the
[1:24] Speaker 1: Happy Families podcast, Real Parenting Solutions every single day. It's
[1:26] Speaker 1: Australia's most downloaded parenting podcast. We are Justin and Kylie Colson.
[1:30] Speaker 1: Today it's a doctor's desk episode with high applicability to
[1:34] Speaker 1: every family whose kids are odd enough to play games
[1:36] Speaker 1: online on a screen. Kylie, let's kick straight into this one.
[1:41] Speaker 2: So what did they actually do?
[1:42] Speaker 1: Okay? So this is a study coming out of Belgium,
[1:44] Speaker 1: five hundred and sixty one Belgian children age ten to seventeen.
[1:47] Speaker 1: So we're talking about our tweens and our teens. They
[1:50] Speaker 1: were surveyed twice twelve months apart, and essentially the researchers
[1:54] Speaker 1: were tracking their exposure to gambling like elements in games
[1:59] Speaker 1: and the degree to which they were involved in real
[2:01] Speaker 1: world gambling.
[2:03] Speaker 2: So when you talk about gambling like elements, what are
[2:06] Speaker 2: you suggesting?
[2:07] Speaker 1: Okay? So in this particular study, I looked at three
[2:10] Speaker 1: types of gambling like elements. You know this, We've talked
[2:12] Speaker 1: about this so much on the pod. Big Tech turns
[2:15] Speaker 1: their platform into something like a casino because of the
[2:19] Speaker 1: flashing lines. Well, the interval of the reward keeps people
[2:22] Speaker 1: coming back and back and back, like the rattle of
[2:24] Speaker 1: the pigeon in the BF skinner box. So three different
[2:27] Speaker 1: types of gambling that they looked at. Loot boxes, social
[2:30] Speaker 1: casino games, and watching gambling streams and videos.
[2:36] Speaker 2: I'm curious, how does watching a gambling stream impact players?
[2:41] Speaker 1: Yeah, so let's talk about each of these in turn.
[2:43] Speaker 1: If you're watching a gambling stream, what that basically does
[2:46] Speaker 1: is it normalizes the process of gambling. Like it's so
[2:51] Speaker 1: interesting because when you hear things, it's very easy to
[2:54] Speaker 1: be dismissive of them. For example, when we are talking
[2:57] Speaker 1: to one of our children about their diet, or about
[2:59] Speaker 1: how much sleep they or about how they need to
[3:01] Speaker 1: get off their screen, and we start to talk about
[3:03] Speaker 1: the reasons why, they go, yeah, don't believe it. It's
[3:06] Speaker 1: not consistent with my experience. They just let it go right.
[3:08] Speaker 1: Words that we hear they're like water off a duck's back.
[3:12] Speaker 1: So often when we read something, it seems to carry
[3:15] Speaker 1: more weight. It's almost like when you're literate and meaning
[3:18] Speaker 1: can be conveyed through words on the written page.
[3:22] Speaker 2: Reading someone who you.
[3:24] Speaker 1: Trust is an authority exactly whereas your kids don't trust
[3:27] Speaker 1: that I know. And so basically, when you read something,
[3:32] Speaker 1: you're more likely to go along with it than when
[3:34] Speaker 1: you hear it.
[3:35] Speaker 2: And I would also suggest if you're reading it, then
[3:37] Speaker 2: you're motivated to take in what's being shared with you.
[3:41] Speaker 1: It's effortful and you're exactly.
[3:44] Speaker 2: We're choosing it.
[3:45] Speaker 1: The third thing that I was going to highlight is
[3:46] Speaker 1: that when you watch something. When you watch something, then
[3:49] Speaker 1: you almost almost as certain to believe it because seeing
[3:51] Speaker 1: is believing, and the way our brains work, when we
[3:54] Speaker 1: see something happen, we are pretty well convinced that it
[3:57] Speaker 1: is true, that it is real. That's why charts and
[3:59] Speaker 1: graphs are so effect By the way, if you want
[4:00] Speaker 1: to be a space of communicator, just throw some charts
[4:03] Speaker 1: and graphs in your presentations and everyone will believe that
[4:05] Speaker 1: you know, what you're talking about is remarkable. And so
[4:07] Speaker 1: basically what happens here If what you see affects your
[4:11] Speaker 1: beliefs much more than what you hear or what you read.
[4:15] Speaker 1: If what you see affects your beliefs, your beliefs affect
[4:18] Speaker 1: your actions. So the more that the behavior is viewed.
[4:22] Speaker 1: The more it is normalized, and the more it is normalized,
[4:25] Speaker 1: the more likely it is that you think, well, if
[4:26] Speaker 1: everyone else is doing it, I might as well do
[4:28] Speaker 1: it as well. So that's how that particular element affects
[4:33] Speaker 1: the probability of a likelihood that your children may end
[4:35] Speaker 1: up gambling because they're watching gambling streams and videos. They're
[4:38] Speaker 1: just seeing it normalized and they think that's what's happening.
[4:41] Speaker 2: What about the other two, Yeah, so.
[4:42] Speaker 1: The other two were loot boxes. For those who are
[4:45] Speaker 1: not familiar with loot boxes because you don't play games,
[4:48] Speaker 1: or your kids don't play games, or you don't think
[4:49] Speaker 1: you kids are playing games at least, a loot box
[4:51] Speaker 1: is like this. It's an in gamer reward, but it
[4:53] Speaker 1: happens randomly. Sometimes you'll pay real money, sometimes you pay
[4:57] Speaker 1: a virtual currency. Sometimes you you might win it, but rarely.
[5:02] Speaker 1: But basically, you've got this opportunity to buy this loot box.
[5:06] Speaker 1: Sometimes it's with points. Right, you've been playing Candy Crush
[5:09] Speaker 1: forever and now there's a loot box and you've got
[5:10] Speaker 1: to have enough stars or enough of whatever so that
[5:13] Speaker 1: you can get the loot box. And you don't know
[5:15] Speaker 1: what you're going to get in the loot box until
[5:16] Speaker 1: you open it. This is literally the same psychological mechanism
[5:19] Speaker 1: as a sorry, I'm pulling the lever a poker machine. Sorry,
[5:23] Speaker 1: you don't pull levers anymore. You push buttons, but you
[5:27] Speaker 1: pull the lever. You push the button, you wait for
[5:28] Speaker 1: the result in your hope.
[5:30] Speaker 2: I don't know about it.
[5:31] Speaker 1: This is why I'm so bad, because I really don't
[5:33] Speaker 1: spending time at casino. Sometimes you get something really big,
[5:36] Speaker 1: sometimes you get nothing, but you get it. You get
[5:38] Speaker 1: these loot boxes, a lot of games like Roadblocks and
[5:41] Speaker 1: in Fortnite, and even you sort of PlayStation games like FIFA,
[5:46] Speaker 1: the soccer game, and then the last one that they
[5:49] Speaker 1: were looking at, as I said, social casino games. So
[5:52] Speaker 1: these are casino style games. Again, forgive my ignorance, but
[5:56] Speaker 1: I don't spend time in casino. But things like the
[5:58] Speaker 1: poker or not the poker, sorry poker, or the slots
[6:02] Speaker 1: I got in the wrong spot the poker, poker or
[6:05] Speaker 1: slots or roulette, and so you're playing for virtual money
[6:07] Speaker 1: instead of real cash. So it's essentially it's role playing gambling.
[6:11] Speaker 1: It's all the mechanics of real gambling. You've got the
[6:13] Speaker 1: same like you said, kind of the flashing lights and
[6:15] Speaker 1: all the sounds and the winds and the losses, but
[6:17] Speaker 1: there's no real money changing hands. So it trains your
[6:20] Speaker 1: brain to believe in and become acquainted with, and familiar
[6:24] Speaker 1: with and enjoy the gambling patterns. It's just that there's
[6:27] Speaker 1: no financial risk. But again it's about normalizing the behavior.
[6:30] Speaker 1: So they're the three things that they were looking.
[6:31] Speaker 2: At, and what did they find.
[6:34] Speaker 1: Really easy to summarize this, seventy five percent of kids
[6:38] Speaker 1: aged ten to seventeen. Three quarters of our tween and
[6:41] Speaker 1: teen children had interacted with gambling like elements in that
[6:46] Speaker 1: twelve month period.
[6:48] Speaker 2: So seventy percent.
[6:49] Speaker 1: Seventy five So it's everywhere, seventy five percent, it's everywhere. Secondly,
[6:54] Speaker 1: and again no surprises here, boys were way more exposed
[6:58] Speaker 1: than girls. It was a like an eighty five versus
[7:02] Speaker 1: fifty five to sixty percent difference.
[7:04] Speaker 2: Well, I'm not surprised by that either. I look at
[7:08] Speaker 2: the way you and I in the past have played
[7:10] Speaker 2: a little candy crush, sagas or whatever they are, whatever
[7:14] Speaker 2: the games we've played, you get really caught up in
[7:18] Speaker 2: the reward system.
[7:19] Speaker 1: I can't put it down.
[7:20] Speaker 2: Whereas I get stuck on a level, and I might
[7:22] Speaker 2: be stuck on that level for weeks because I just
[7:26] Speaker 2: I don't care about the challenges or the.
[7:29] Speaker 1: I'm just you just because you're bored.
[7:31] Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm just playing a kind of a bit of
[7:33] Speaker 2: an outlet, whereas you get learned how the game were
[7:36] Speaker 2: sucked in, and yeah.
[7:39] Speaker 1: Where do I get the prizes? How many stars do
[7:41] Speaker 1: I need for this?
[7:42] Speaker 2: Close my mind? Just how invested you become in something.
[7:46] Speaker 1: And so the rule, the decision we have made is
[7:49] Speaker 1: that we just don't have the games on our phones anymore,
[7:51] Speaker 1: because every time I download the game, you lose me
[7:53] Speaker 1: for three or four weeks, and then I'm like, oh
[7:55] Speaker 1: my goodness, it's happened again. I can't believe that with
[7:58] Speaker 1: everything I know, it's still happened.
[8:00] Speaker 2: Just the way our brains work so differently.
[8:02] Speaker 1: Yeah, let me go on. Sixty percent had gambled for
[8:04] Speaker 1: real money, which is obviously illegal if you're under eighteen.
[8:07] Speaker 1: But we're talking about eleven to seventeen year olds. Ten
[8:10] Speaker 1: to seventeen year olds, so sixty percent of them had
[8:12] Speaker 1: gambled for real money, mostly interestingly in Belgium, at least
[8:16] Speaker 1: using scratch cards, but then betting with friends and sports
[8:19] Speaker 1: and even participating in the lottery. Kids who were exposed
[8:22] Speaker 1: to the gambling like elements in the first year were
[8:25] Speaker 1: significantly more likely to gamble for real money in the
[8:28] Speaker 1: second year. So basically the pathways as follows. Exposure shifts
[8:32] Speaker 1: attitudes about gambling, which leads to an intention to gamble,
[8:36] Speaker 1: which leads to actual gambling. And what's really interesting about
[8:40] Speaker 1: this is that peer pressure was looked at as a
[8:42] Speaker 1: covariate and it just wasn't that important. Attitudes matter way
[8:45] Speaker 1: more than what peers are doing. It's what kids think
[8:50] Speaker 1: about gambling that determines whether the old gamble way more
[8:53] Speaker 1: than what their peers are doing. Interesting, So, if I'm
[8:56] Speaker 1: looking at my friends and I've been raised in a
[8:58] Speaker 1: home where my parents say, gambling for turkeys, this is
[9:00] Speaker 1: not a wise thing to do. Why would you do it?
[9:02] Speaker 1: It's literally the most foolish thing you can do with
[9:04] Speaker 1: your money. And if I've endorsed that, and I've internalized
[9:07] Speaker 1: that and integrated that into my identity, I'm just the
[9:10] Speaker 1: person who doesn't gamble, even with the games flashing up
[9:12] Speaker 1: all this sort of stuff. When my peers are gambling
[9:16] Speaker 1: I'm not going to go, oh, well, peer influence. I
[9:17] Speaker 1: think I should have a flutter. I'm going to look
[9:19] Speaker 1: at my friend and say, what are you doing that for?
[9:20] Speaker 1: That's so dumb. But if I start to engage with
[9:23] Speaker 1: these gambling like elements in my games, then holy how,
[9:26] Speaker 1: I'm in trouble because that's going to start to change
[9:29] Speaker 1: my attitude, which is then going to change my intention,
[9:31] Speaker 1: which is predictive of the likelihood of me doing it.
[9:35] Speaker 2: Okay, so Doctor's Desk is partly about you geeking out,
[9:38] Speaker 2: but it's also about us giving the families and parents
[9:41] Speaker 2: in particular help. How do we help parents navigate this
[9:45] Speaker 2: space with their kids?
[9:47] Speaker 1: Three simple answers Right after the break, stay with us,
[9:57] Speaker 1: We're back. This is the Happy Famili's podcast where you
[9:59] Speaker 1: get real parents every single day. Kylie, let me ask
[10:02] Speaker 1: you a question. What are we supposed to do? Because
[10:04] Speaker 1: I think this is really important. The core message before
[10:07] Speaker 1: we talk about what to do is as follows. We're
[10:09] Speaker 1: not just talking about loop boxes. We're talking about all
[10:11] Speaker 1: of these gambling like elements that are appearing more and
[10:15] Speaker 1: more in our children's ecosystem online and unfortunately, they don't
[10:19] Speaker 1: even have to be online. They can be on TV,
[10:21] Speaker 1: you shop at a sports event. Gambling is everywhere. You
[10:24] Speaker 1: listen to podcasts that there are literally hundreds of millions
[10:27] Speaker 1: of dollars that are being spent every single year in
[10:29] Speaker 1: Australia to get the gambling message out there. These are
[10:33] Speaker 1: morality free, conscience free people. I just I cannot believe
[10:37] Speaker 1: that our government has been so feckless at a political
[10:42] Speaker 1: level that there is not better safeguarding and save a
[10:46] Speaker 1: guardrails around our kids in their gambling. The whole ecosystem
[10:50] Speaker 1: is normalizing it and kids don't see it as gambling.
[10:53] Speaker 1: They see it as part of the game. So what
[10:55] Speaker 1: a parents do A couple of really basic things. First off,
[10:59] Speaker 1: you need to know what you can doing, actually understand
[11:02] Speaker 1: the mechanics, don't just know the game title. How many
[11:05] Speaker 1: parents who are listening to this right now know that
[11:07] Speaker 1: Roadblocks hasipboxes and other gambling like elements. How many parents
[11:11] Speaker 1: listening right now know that Fortnite and FIFA have these
[11:15] Speaker 1: kinds of elements, and the list goes on. I think
[11:18] Speaker 1: that it's worth in your conversations with the kids making
[11:20] Speaker 1: the connection explicit. So literally say to them, this is
[11:23] Speaker 1: how poker machines work. If you're going to let the
[11:27] Speaker 1: kids play games that do have these elements, it's important
[11:30] Speaker 1: that you talk to the kids about not just the elements,
[11:33] Speaker 1: but also talk to them about limits on how they're
[11:36] Speaker 1: going to interact with the game. Certainly, let them know
[11:39] Speaker 1: that under no circumstance are you satisfied for them to
[11:41] Speaker 1: be spending money because this is promoting and enabling gambling.
[11:48] Speaker 1: And just watch what they're watching, like know whether or
[11:50] Speaker 1: not they're watching streams of people playing these games. Have
[11:53] Speaker 1: the conversation. Gambling companies design these to be addictive and
[11:58] Speaker 1: it is working.
[12:00] Speaker 2: I'm going hardcore. Just abolish, abolish.
[12:03] Speaker 1: Them all, delete the apps, throw the games in the bin.
[12:05] Speaker 2: Yep, done it.
[12:07] Speaker 1: Problemly is then the kids go and do it at
[12:08] Speaker 1: their friend's houses. Are the conversations you know this? We
[12:11] Speaker 1: have these conversations every Sunday.
[12:12] Speaker 2: I actually don't have a problem with them going to
[12:14] Speaker 2: their friends and having a game on the computer.
[12:16] Speaker 1: But if they're sitting there watching streams of people gambling,
[12:19] Speaker 1: if they're playing virtual pokeys but for fake money rather
[12:24] Speaker 1: than real money, if they're engaging in casino style games,
[12:28] Speaker 1: are you okay with that? Like you No?
[12:30] Speaker 2: No? Not at all. But I'm just I'm saying I
[12:32] Speaker 2: would much prefer my daughter to go and spend a
[12:35] Speaker 2: couple of hours at a friend's place and play a
[12:37] Speaker 2: video game with her friend, then have it in my
[12:40] Speaker 2: home where she has access to it whenever she wants.
[12:44] Speaker 2: That's what I'm saying.
[12:45] Speaker 1: The conversation still counts. What are they going to do
[12:48] Speaker 1: while they're at that person's house.
[12:50] Speaker 2: You could say that about anything.
[12:52] Speaker 1: That's why parenting matters. That's why we do this podcast,
[12:55] Speaker 1: all right. Bottom line, The gateway to gambling is real,
[12:58] Speaker 1: and often it is through the pathway of gaming. Exposure
[13:02] Speaker 1: to gambling is going to change how you can think
[13:04] Speaker 1: about gambling, and that is going to be the biggest
[13:06] Speaker 1: predictor of whether they do or not. Once they think
[13:08] Speaker 1: that gambling is either fun or normal, or profitable or
[13:11] Speaker 1: an indicator of their skill, their special talent, their ability,
[13:15] Speaker 1: the step to actually doing the real gambling is just
[13:19] Speaker 1: so tiny. It's so easy for them to make that
[13:21] Speaker 1: next step. We can't control the industry. We can control
[13:24] Speaker 1: what happens in our own homes, and Kylie, we can
[13:26] Speaker 1: control the conversation we have with our kids when they're
[13:29] Speaker 1: going to other people's homes well.
[13:31] Speaker 2: Since we try not to helicopter parent in this house,
[13:34] Speaker 2: I think that might be a good place to start.
[13:36] Speaker 1: We will link to the research article in the show
[13:37] Speaker 1: notes for today's episode. The Happy Famili's podcast is produced
[13:40] Speaker 1: by Justin Rulin from Bridge Media and them Habits provides research,
[13:43] Speaker 1: admin and additional support. If you'd like more info to
[13:46] Speaker 1: make your family happier or to keep your kids out
[13:49] Speaker 1: of gambling, you might want to check out my brand
[13:50] Speaker 1: new book. It's called Boys, Raising Strong Young Men from
[13:54] Speaker 1: the Inside Out. You can pre order it now a
[13:56] Speaker 1: book topia dot com dot a U or visit happy
[13:59] Speaker 1: families dot com that I used to join the whitelist.
[14:08] Speaker 1: M hmm.

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them.