Prevalence and types of video gaming and gambling activities among adolescent public school students: findings from a cross-sectional study in Italy

Adolescence is characterized by emotional instability and risk-taking behaviours that can lead to, among other things, an increased risk of developing pathological video-gaming and gambling habits. The aim of this Study is to assess the prevalence and type of video gaming and gambling habits in adolescent students attending Italian upper-secondary schools. The cross-sectional study was conducted via an online survey using validated questionnaires. The primary outcome measures were the prevalence of past-year video gaming and gambling activities. The sample consisted of 502 adolescent students from first- and second-grade secondary schools. A total of 40.8% of participants were video gamers, 4.8% were gamblers, 17.8% were both video gamers and gamblers, and the remaining 36.6% were not players. Among participants who reported video gaming activity (n = 294), 68.0% were classified as nonproblem gamers, 24.5% as at-risk gamers, and 7.5% as disordered video gamers. Among the participants who reported gambling activity (n = 113), 85.8% were not problematic gamblers, 8.9% were at-risk gamblers, and 5.3% were pathological gamblers. Only 0.2% of all subjects met the criteria for both pathological gambling and pathological video game use. The findings indicate that video gaming and gambling are common leisure times among adolescent students. However, a small but significant minority of these adolescents met the criteria for either severe problem gaming or gambling or both.