A new survey of Norwegian adolescents suggests that young people who frequently play video games with loot boxes face a significantly higher risk of developing gambling problems.
The 2025 survey, conducted by Spillforsk at the University of Bergen, reinforces and expands on earlier research published in 2018 that suggested video gaming can serve as a gateway to gambling behaviour.
The recent study surveyed 9,000 young people aged 12 to 17 and revealed that 27.7% had bought loot boxes, 29.4% had purchased skins, and 15.5% had participated in skin betting within the past year.
Among these groups, the rates of both computer gaming and gambling problems were notably higher.
Overall, 7.1% met the criteria for gambling problems, and 15% had issues related to gaming.
Researchers also noted clear correlations between gaming-related purchases and other risk factors, including alcohol and energy drink consumption, bullying, loneliness, and limited parental supervision.
Atle Hamar, director general of the Norwegian Gaming and Foundation Authority, said the findings align with concerns already observed by Norsk Tipping, the country’s state-run gaming company.
He explained that many players entering gambling environments appear to have prior experience with gaming systems that mimic gambling mechanisms.
Hamar emphasised that features like loot boxes and skin betting normalise gambling-like behaviour among minors and create an early familiarity with chance-based rewards.
Loot boxes, which allow players to purchase random in-game items without knowing their contents in advance, have been controversial for years.
Skins, meanwhile, are cosmetic items that alter the appearance of avatars or equipment and can sometimes be worth thousands of dollars. Both systems blur the line between entertainment and gambling by monetising uncertainty.
According to Professor Ståle Pallesen of the University of Bergen, this simulation of gambling gives adolescents a distorted sense of odds and risk.
This can later translate into problematic behaviour when they encounter actual gambling products.
While the proportion of adolescents who gamble has decreased over time – now at 18.8% compared to higher earlier levels – the risk of addiction among those who do gamble has intensified.
The study found that participants in gambling-like gaming activities were overrepresented among those with both gaming and gambling disorders.
The report also highlighted that boys remain disproportionately involved, with 45% having purchased loot boxes compared to just 9% of girls, and 21.4% having engaged in skin betting compared to 8.4% of girls.
When compared to the 2018 longitudinal study by Molde, Pallesen, and colleagues at the University of Bergen, the new data underscores how the issue has evolved.
The earlier study, based on a representative sample of adults aged 16 to 74, concluded that problem gaming predicted later gambling problems, while gambling did not predict gaming issues.
That research found a modest but significant directional link – video gaming problems in 2013 correlated with gambling problems in 2015 – but lacked insight into the types of games played.
The authors at the time acknowledged that not distinguishing between game genres was a limitation, as some games include gambling-like mechanics while others do not.
They also noted that the average age of participants, 48 years, meant the effects on youth could have been understated.
In contrast, the 2025 survey specifically targets adolescents and captures the impact of gaming monetisation systems that have become increasingly common over the last decade.
The inclusion of loot boxes and skin betting as measurable behaviours illustrates a more sophisticated understanding of how gaming and gambling now coalesce.
Whereas the 2018 study found that gaming was a predictor of future gambling across the general population, the latest data show this connection has become more direct and pronounced among youth exposed to in-game purchasing systems.
The findings carry important implications for regulation. Two years ago, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of a report calling for stricter oversight of loot boxes and microtransactions.
Despite the vote, there has been no EU-wide ban, leaving regulatory responsibility to individual countries.
Norway’s gaming authority has urged continued vigilance, arguing that simulated gambling in games may expose vulnerable young people to addictive behaviours long before they reach legal gambling age.
Researchers emphasise that multiple social and psychological factors still influence problem gambling.
The 2025 survey identified bullying, poor health, low life satisfaction, and weak family relationships as prominent risk factors.
However, the correlation between gambling-like gaming activities and problem gambling appears stronger than ever.
The data suggests that as gaming mechanics evolve to include monetised random rewards, the line separating gaming from gambling continues to blur.
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