Adolescents’ use of the Internet and other digital media for the purpose of gambling represents a serious concern in modern
society. This paper overviews some of the available monetary and non-monetary forms of gambling within new digital and online
media and monetary forms of games with gambling-like experiences. With reference to current psychological knowledge on the
risk factors that promote adolescent gambling, it is suggested that new gambling technologies may: (a) make gambling more
accessible and attractive to young people, (b) may promote factually incorrect information about gambling, (c) provide an
easy escape from real world problems such as depression and social isolation, (d) create a gambling environment that easily
facilitates peer pressures to gamble, (e) ease parental transmission of gambling attitudes and beliefs, and (f) make gambling
more ubiquitous and socially acceptable. The unique risks of Internet gambling for young people are critically discussed,
as well as the lack of restricted classification for video games and other media that feature interactive, non-monetary forms
of gambling.
Keywords Digital media - Convergence - Adolescent gambling