The Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey (CCGNJ) is conducting an online survey to gauge New Jersey residents’ attitudes about legalized gambling.
CCGNJ said it wants public feedback on the state’s gambling culture and whether regulators have responded sufficiently to problem-gambling in the wake of New Jersey’s decisions to legalize online gambling in 2013, followed by legalized sports betting in 2018.
Go here to take the Gambling Attitudes in New Jersey survey.
A 2023 report by the Rutgers University Center for Gambling Studies found that 61% of New Jersey residents surveyed participated in one or more of 15 gambling activities in the prior year. About 6% of all survey participants were high-risk problem gamblers and 13% were moderate risk problem gamblers. This is three times the national average, the report said.
“The Council has begun to frame the spike in problem gambling, evidenced by a dramatic increase in calls to the 800-GAMBLER Helpline, as an emerging public health issue,” CCGNJ said on Monday. “One issue of concern is the tremendous volume of gambling advertising, some of which is misleading and targets youth and young adults.”
The 2023 Rutgers report found the number of young people aged 18 to 24 gambling online has increased fourfold.