National Institute on Drug Abuse: Teen Gambling Crisis Deepening
Posted on: May 22, 2026, 04:12h.
Last updated on: May 22, 2026, 04:13h.
- Gambling problems among teens are growing, the National Institute on Drug Abuse claims
- The debate on whether sports prediction markets constitute gambling continues
The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) made startling revelations on Thursday before a House Appropriations subcommittee on Capitol Hill.
NIDA Director Dr. Nora Volkow appeared before the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health, Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, where she testified about escalating abuse problems in the United States. Asked about gambling disorders, Volkow said such addiction continues to rise among most demographics, but is most notable among younger people.
In terms of the highest risk is teenagers, the transition from teenagers to young adults. What we are seeing is a significant rise in gambling, whether it is through sports or other means,” Volkow said.
“If you look at it from our understanding of biology, we know that the circuits involved with addictive behaviors to drugs overlap with gambling. That leads to compulsive use of behaviors like gambling,” Volkow explained.
Volkow said NIDA is currently studying whether certain drugs used to combat opioid and other narcotic abuses might help suppress gambling urges.
NIDA is a unit of the National Institutes of Health and the US Department of Health and Human Services. NIDA is a research institute whose mission is to “advance science on the causes and consequences of drug use and addiction and to apply that knowledge to improve individual and public health.”
Prediction Markets Allow Teens to Trade
The recent emergence of prediction markets offering trading on sports has sounded alarms from problem gambling experts.
The debate on whether trading shares of the outcomes of sports constitutes gambling or a financial undertaking won’t be resolved anytime soon. In the interim, responsible gaming advocates argue that prediction markets are preying on teenagers and exposing their brains to the risk-reward aspect of gambling, and putting a highly addictive product in teenagers’ hands.
The evidence is everywhere that we are in the early stages of a mental health and gambling addiction epidemic, and those most severely impacted are young men. This brings the focus squarely to the dangerous conduct of the prediction markets and a business model that attempts to deliver non-stop gambling to people as young as eighteen,” Dr. Harry Levant, the director of gambling policy at the Public Health Advocacy Institute, testified before a Senate Commerce subcommittee this week.
Prediction markets argue they don’t offer gambling products but financial instruments that allow traders to use their foresight to make money, not unlike a stock trader forecasting the price of Amazon shares.
The prediction markets also claim to be committed to responsible gaming, with leader Kalshi signing on this week as a member of the National Council on Problem Gambling.
Can Trump Be Swayed?
President Donald Trump has so far been supportive of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission allowing prediction markets to offer new events, including sports. His son, Donald Trump Jr., is a paid advisor to both Kalshi and Polymarket. And Trump Media has teased its own prediction market, Truth Predict.
However, as the debate over sports prediction markets rages on, some powerful Republicans are siding with the regulated gaming industry, which argues that such trades constitute gambling.
“Prediction markets offering event contracts on sporting events for all intents and purposes are sports bets,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said this week.
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