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Problem Gambling Conference Looks at Youth Problem

“…While a day at the track is widely viewed as innocuous family entertainment, authorities on problem gambling have begun to urge parents and educators to rethink those attitudes.
At the 17th National Conference on Problem Gambling, which opened yesterday at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Louisville, youth gambling is the focus of an unprecedented nine sessions led by re searchers and prevention experts. That reflects increased concern over what many view as a growing problem.

“Researchers are finding children betting in ever-increasing numbers — with 80 percent of adolescents telling one recent survey that they had gambled in the past year.

“And nearly two dozen U.S. and Canadian studies over the past 20 years have found that children who gamble are far more likely than those who pick up the habit as adults to develop severe problems associated with what, at first, may appear to be nothing more than a harmless diversion.

“`Gambling can be as addictive as alcohol, drugs or tobacco. We've got to get that message through,’ said Durand Jacobs, a professor at Loma Linda University Medical School in Riverside, Calif., and a longtime youth-gambling researcher.

“…Jacobs and his colleagues blame the proliferation of gambling — both legal and illegal — for the overexposure that many youngsters now face. The current generation is growing up in an age when gambling on the lottery, horse racing, casinos, bingo and over the Internet is ubiquitous — and far less stigmatized than it once was.

“…In attempting to imitate adults, the studies found, youths bet on sports, play cards and compete at video games for money. They buy lottery scratch-off tickets and can easily reach illegal Internet gambling sites — a phenomenon that prompted the Federal Trade Commission last year to issue an alert warning parents of the easy access.

“…But experts insist they're fighting an uphill battle if they can't convince parents to wise up. The diligence by lotteries means little if parents buy scratch-off tickets and give them to children — a common practice, said Shelly Perez, the Missouri Lottery's Responsible Gaming Program coordinator…”

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