It's enough to make America's financial advisers cringe

Gen Z sees sports betting as part of its long-term financial strategy, one survey found.

The results of a recent survey from wealth-management platform Betterment are making America's financial advisers cringe.

Robo-adviser platform Betterment's latest annual survey of retail investors found that more than half of Gen Z-ers had redirected money intended for investing toward sports betting over the past year. Roughly a quarter said they considered sports betting part of their long-term financial strategy, according to the survey

Concerns about Gen Z's financial habits have been percolating for years. Kyla Scanlon and other financial commentators have warned about Gen Z's tendency toward financial nihilism - the idea that widespread economic pessimism is pushing more young people to take extreme risks with their money.

For the survey, Betterment's sample size was only 1,000 people across four generations, according to a press release. Yet financial advisers who spoke with MarketWatch said the findings reflect what they have been hearing from friends and clients.

"I think it speaks to how young people feel right now: 'Whether this hits or it doesn't, it doesn't matter. Either way, I won't be able to buy a home,'" said Clifford Cornell, a financial adviser at New York-based Bone Fide Wealth, during a conversation with MarketWatch.

Against the odds

The drivers of young peoples' financial ennui are easy to spot, said Cullen Roche, founder and CIO of Discipline Funds: Wages haven't kept up with the rising cost of living, and escalating costs for homeownership, healthcare and education have stoked widespread angst.

All of these factors help to boost the appeal of an immediate financial windfall. But for the majority of people, a regular gambling habit will destroy wealth, not build it, Roche said.

"Gambling is inherently a negative-sum game in a closed system. Bettors compete for a fixed pot where the odds are stacked against you, and fees are enormous because the house takes its rake off the top," Roche told MarketWatch.

Investing, by comparison, offers a much better shot at long-term wealth accumulation.

"The stock market is a positive-sum game where fees are low and the total pot consistently expands," Roche noted.

Even so, as the line between investing and gambling grows increasingly blurry, it's understandable that some consumers might get confused.

Products like options and leveraged ETFs allow investors to place speculative bets using their brokerage accounts, Cornell said. Prediction markets have been embraced by online brokerages like Robinhood (HOOD), which popularized commission-free stock trading. Plus, platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket offer a familiar look and feel to users of traditional investing apps.

"On prediction markets, they're literally showing you candlestick charts," Cornell said. "They're making it seem like you're trading a financial instrument."

When contacted for comment, a representative for DraftKings $(DKNG)$ said sports betting should only be for entertainment purposes. "It's not something we'd recommend viewing as an investment," the DraftKings spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, a representative for FanDuel $(FLUT)$ referred MarketWatch to a LinkedIn post from Cory Fox, the company's senior vice president of public policy and sustainability.

"While I can't speak for others, at FanDuel we encourage everyone to budget for sports betting as an entertainment product right alongside concert tickets, movies and Twitch subscriptions," Fox said in the post.

Representatives for Robinhood, Kalshi and Polymarket didn't return requests for comment. Betterment referred MarketWatch to a press release announcing the survey results.

-Joseph Adinolfi