Saturday, November 21, 1998
Story By Andrew Weaver
and James Garbarino
We are only beginning to understand the effect of gambling on youth. This is the first generation of American children who have grown up in a society where gambling has been widely legalized, accepted, marketed and glamorized.THIS addiction cannot be detected by a breath or blood test, nor does it leave needle marks. Like alcohol, it is a social activity for most people.
But for a significant minority, what many find to be a newly accessible and harmless form of entertainment is a devastating addiction. Experts say that for some people gambling is no less potent than heroin or cocaine.
Gambling creates an adrenaline "high" generated by the "action" of winning and losing. As more and more young people have access to gambling the numbers of youth addicted to it grows.
"Pathological gambling" is defined as a chronic and progressive psychological disorder characterized by emotional dependence, loss of control and accompanying negative consequences in the gambler's school, social and family life.
The person is preoccupied with gambling, constantly thinking of the next wagering venture or ways to raise money to bet.
Most pathological gamblers say that they seek the "high" of betting through wagering increasing amounts of money. They tend to "chase" the losses of one day with increased betting to cover their past losses.
Harvard Medical School researchers recently reviewed nine studies of gambling behavior among 7,700 young people, aged 15-20, in the United States and Canada.
They found that 9.9 percent to 14.2 percent displayed problems with gambling, and 4.4 percent to 7.4 percent met the diagnostic criteria for the disorder "pathological gambling." These figures are two to three times greater than those reported among adults.
We are only beginning to understand the effect of gambling on youth. This is the first generation of American children who have grown up in a society where gambling has been widely legalized, accepted, marketed and glamorized.
In 1988, only two states had large-scale casinos. Now 27 states have them. Thirty-seven states operate a lottery, and some form of gambling is legal in every state except Hawaii and Utah.
As gambling proliferates, it increases both the exposure of children to wagering and their vulnerability to the addiction. Increasingly, the market-savvy gambling industry is pushing the concept of "family entertainment centers."
It is the aim of the industry to create the next generation of gamblers from children who watch their parents get excited by gambling.
Americans now spend more than $500 billion annually in the U.S. on some form of gambling, which totals more than that spent on movies, sporting events, concerts and the theater combined.
Since adolescents tend to engage in high-risk behaviors, gambling is one of the ways that they can express this tendency. Young people are particularly vulnerable to the "get rich quick" promotions of the gambling industry.
Nine years after casinos were legalized in New Jersey, a survey of high school students in Atlantic City found that more than half of the respondents had gambled in casinos.
Similarly, the Indian Gambling Regulatory Act of 1988 has led to the establishment of casinos on numerous reservations throughout the United States that have fostered high rates of gambling problems among native peoples. Among young Native Americans in Minnesota, one in 10 was found to have a serious gambling problem.
Teen gambling is mostly a hidden issue. Due to the secrecy that goes along with a gambling addiction and the often swift progression of the illness, family members frequently do not see what is happening.
It probably is the fastest growing addiction in the U.S. Gambling is just another element of social toxicity, another poison with which children, youth and families must contend.
It is important to appreciate the many hidden costs of legalized gambling to the American family.
Adult problem gamblers are likely to have destabilized families and become divorced, drink excessively and use drugs,abuse their spouses and children, become depressed and attempt suicide.
The children of problem gamblers are more likely than children from non-gambling families to do poorly in school, use illicit drugs, tobacco and alcohol, run away from home, attempt suicide and, of course, take up gambling.
Three out of four children of problem gamblers report that their first gambling experience occurred before age 11.
Gambling also fosters crime, with its related costs.
In the three years following the opening of its first casino, Atlantic City went from 50th to first in the nation in per capita crime.
The rise in crime after gambling was introduced in Atlantic City drove up the costs for courts and law enforcement at a rate five times faster than the average New Jersey county.
Professor William Thompson at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, has calculated that each 10,000 persons addicted to gambling annually cost society $130 million in the hidden expenses of lost productivity, criminal activity, judicial proceedings and treatment.
Rarely, if ever, are these costs factored into the glowing descriptions of the supposed economic "benefits" of gambling for communities and local government.
We need to teach our children that wagering is not a good way to attain independence and success in life.
The more our children are taught to trust in dumb luck, random chance and fate, the less they will believe in the values of diligence, industriousness, and deferred gratification.
Community service, discipline and aloha is the way to fulfillment.
Andrew J. Weaver is a clinical faculty member at the
University of Hawaii Department of Psychology and a clinical psychologist
at Hawaii State Hospital. James Garbarino is a psychologist and co-director
of the Family Development Center in the College of Human Ecology
at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.
