"My last piece of advice to the degenerate slot player who thinks he can beat the one-armed bandit consists of four little words: "It can't be done." John Scarne

Teen Gambling

A self-test for teens: Do you have a problem with gambling?

1. Do you or your parents gamble often?
2. Do you often fantasize about winning big and what you would do with the winnings?
3. Have you ever missed school, work or other important activities to gamble?
4. When you are gambling, do you lose track of time and forget about everything else?
5. Has your free time started to revolve around gambling?
6. Is gambling more exciting to you than any other activity?
7. Have you given up other hobbies in order to spend more time gambling?
8. Do you feel now that gambling is more important than school or work?
9. Do you hang out with friends that gamble often?
10. Do you feel that gambling makes you part of the crowd?
11. Do you believe that you are sometimes on a winning streak and return to gambling more often when you feel that you are hot?
12. When you lose, do you feel you must play as soon as possible to win back your losses?
13. Do you often spend money that you were supposed to use for something else to gamble?
14. Have you ever borrowed or stolen money to gamble?
15. Have you ever sold anything to get money to gamble?
16. Do you lie to your family or friends about your gambling?
17. Do you get into arguments with your family or friends because of gambling?
18. Do you lose sleep or feel guilty because you have lost money gambling?
19. Have you ever thought of suicide as a way of solving your problems?

Self scoring guide:
YES 3 - 4 times: You may have a problem
YES 5 - 7 times: Gambling is more than a hobby for you.
YES more than 7: If you answered this many yes, you do have a problem, seek help from a parent, counselor or friend.

Most parents may not understand at first, but they would be much less disappointed in you if you told them the truth. Your parents will eventually find out anyway, so go to them and tell them the truth and ask them to help you find some help. If your parents won’t help,  go to your school counselor, a friend’s parent, your pastor, your coach, just find someone to help you.  This is not something that you can manage on your own.

The Harvard Medical School Division on Addictions estimated in 1997 there were 7.9 million American adolescent problem and pathological gamblers (5.7 million problem and 2.2 million pathological). These statistics are old, however they are the most currently available estimate.  This number is higher than the number of adults who have problems with gambling and these figures were promulgated prior to the massive expansion of tribal casinos and internet gambling sites and the massive marketing done by the gambling industry. The actual number of teens and young adults who currently gamble is probably now much higher. Teens and young adults have never known a time when gambling was considered to be illegal or immoral in our culture. They have little social training to avoid gambling activities

With the glorification of gambling on programs like "World Poker Tour" and the easy availability of casinos all over Oklahoma, the expansion of internet gambling sites, and the availability of gambling on cell phones, the increase in the number of problem gamblers among teens and young adults may grow exponentially.

Poker tournaments in private homes and bars have become the "in" thing to do. Kids in high school are having poker "get togethers" where they play for real money.

Most casinos allow 18 year olds to gamble in Oklahoma. Even Las Vegas makes them wait until they are 21.

18 year olds are able to buy lottery tickets. 18 year olds cannot buy beer, but they can play the lottery.

The saddest part of this is that the public, legislature and gambling industry are not realizing the threat this poses to our youth. Teens are not ready to deal with the aftermath of gambling addiction. Credit card companies are allowed to lure our youth with easy credit on college campuses and now we have added casino gambling, web based gambling, poker tournaments and the lottery to the mix.

Every effort should be made to educate our children about the perils of gambling and "easy credit." Credit card companies should be banned from college campuses or at least should require that a person have a JOB before they extend credit. Colleges should be required to install gambling site blocking software on their internet servers.  The casinos should not allow anyone under the age of 21 to gamble and lottery tickets should not be sold to anyone not old enough to buy beer.

Given that most adults do not understand the difficulties of accumulating large debt loads, it is understandable that people in this age group are generally not experienced enough to understand the long term consequences of massive debt. They should not be encouraged to mortgage their futures by gambling so that adults can make a little more money.

Great time and effort has been put into drug and alcohol education for our youth, we now must include gambling addiction awareness to this list.

Copyright 2007

All material remains the property of the author