Sports betting is increasingly the norm for Gen Z. Here’s why some financial and mental health experts are worried

The Draft Kings website arranged on a laptop in New Hyde Park, New York, US, on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025. Gabby Jones | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesWagering on sports outcomes has exploded in the 2020s, but recent surveys show just how widespread gambling has become for Generation Z. A survey of retail investors released in August by Betterment, an investment advisory platform, found that 66% of Gen Z investors participate in sports betting. The Bank of America Institute found in a September report that Gen Z made up almost 50% of all online betting activity in July, during the height of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, outnumbering millennials for the first time. "It is more unusual for someone not to have, for example, a Kalshi account, DraftKings … than it is" to have such an account, said Cynthia Grant, vice president of clinical at Birches Health, which provides online therapy for online gambling addiction recovery. "It's part of the experience of watching sports now."Sports betting surged after a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court allowing state-authorized sportsbooks, which have since spread to 30 states. The introduction of sports-related event contracts on prediction markets — which claim they ...