“They say you can make 400,000 won in five minutes...” U.S. Gen Zers ditch stocks and go all-in on betting

[Financial News] More than half of U.S. Gen Z investors have spent money they had planned to invest on sports betting in the past year, a survey found. Concern is growing, especially as one in four sees betting as part of a long-term financial strategy.
According to the results of the “2026 Individual Investor Survey,” recently conducted by investment advisory platform Betterment among 1,000 U.S. individual investors from late March to early April, 52% of Gen Z respondents said they had redirected money intended for investments to sports betting over the past year.
The share of Gen Zers who viewed betting as a long-term financial strategy was 26%, far higher than among millennials (14%), Gen Xers (6%) and baby boomers (1%). Betterment CEO Sarah Levy said, “If prediction markets or sportsbooks are starting to feel like retirement strategies, something is wrong.” In this model, odds are set according to the game’s outcome, with a fee known as the “vig” built into them to secure profits regardless of the result.
Since a 2018 Supreme Court ruling, sports betting has spread to 39 states and Washington, D.C. More brokerages, including Robinhood, have added prediction markets to their apps, and Robinhood is now reportedly making more money from prediction markets than from stock trading. Experts say that because sports betting and prediction markets are used on the same smartphone platforms as investment apps, young people are confusing the two activities.
Dan Egan, Betterment’s vice president of behavioral finance, said betting is the opposite of assets that rise in value as the economy grows, since fees are built into the odds. The data backs this up. According to the Bank of America (BofA) Institute, users got back less than 75 cents for every dollar they sent to platforms this year, and the median deposit balance of households that bet was just 59% of that of households that did not.
Economic anxiety is thought to be driving the rise in sports betting among Gen Z. According to a survey released by Northwestern Mutual in January, about 80% of Gen Zers who feel they are falling behind financially said high-risk products would help them reach their goals sooner. This suggests that economic anxiety has led more Gen Zers to chase a quick windfall.
Warnings from mental health experts are also mounting. Cynthia Grant, clinical lead at Birches Health, a gambling addiction treatment provider, explained that betting becomes clinically problematic when it starts interfering with relationships, school or work.
Consumer finance expert Erica Sandberg criticized the investment trend, saying, “People listen when someone talks about making $300 (about 400,000 won) in five minutes, but they don’t hear about someone losing $800 (about 1.07 million won) last month.”
[email protected] Kim Hee-seon Reporter