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Young Gamblers Flock to the Internet

WASHINGTON -- 29 Jan 2001 --He heard about Internet gambling from his friends in the dorm. He bet $10 on a basketball game, and won. It was "intriguing," so he tried it again. And again. He was up "quite a bit" by the end of the month.

Watching the games on television became "a lot more interesting," even when he started to lose, he said. And lose he did. He doubled up. Lost again. Started betting $500 a game. Still lost. In a few months he was down $7,000, his girlfriend said he "wasn't the same anymore," and his grades took a nosedive. In the classroom, he spent his time surfing the Net, looking at point spreads.

This young man, who spoke anonymously about his gambling addiction at a seminar for athletic administrators hosted last year by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, is representative of what appears to be a growing problem in the United States.

The explosion of Internet sites dedicated to gambling has made wagering much more accessible than it ever was. As a result, more people are prone to getting deep into debt through gambling, and even to becoming gambling addicts, experts say. And young people appear to be especially vulnerable.

"In virtually all studies of the rates of gambling problems at various ages, high school and college-aged individuals show the highest problem rates," said an advisory on Internet gambling and addiction issued by the American Psychiatric Association last week in the days leading up to the Super Bowl, the biggest sports betting event of the year. The advisory was aimed at university news services and other news outlets serving young people.

Nowhere are young people more at risk than on the Internet. They are the first online generation, as comfortable in cyberspace as their parents were in front of the television. Once in college, they are besieged by credit card companies eager to sign them up.

"When the college kids tap out on their cards, they use their parents' cards," said Kevin O'Neill, deputy director of the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey. "Then they call us up, or their parents call [1-800-522-4700 is the national help line]. We'll see a lot of bailouts next week."

Rick Smith, executive director of the Interactive Gaming Council, said he had not read the APA advisory and could not comment. He said he was not authorized to comment on whether Internet gambling organizations are targeting teenagers and young adults.

The NCAA's speaker, who described himself as a junior at a Division One college in the Mid-Atlantic region, told his parents about his gambling, and they paid his debts in time for him to recover academically, he said. A friend wasn't so lucky. In the hole for $5,000, he had to quit school and work to cover his losses.

The congressionally chartered National Gambling Impact Study Commission estimated there were 6.9 million potential Internet gamblers in 1997 and revenue of about $300 million. One year later, the pool of potential users had grown to 14.5 million and revenue was $651 million.

And it is potentially the worst type of gambling: "From the psychiatric point of view, it's roughly like drinking alone versus drinking in a bar," said Sheila Blume, chairwoman of the APA's Addicted Patients Committee. "Here's someone sitting at a computer with the door closed, and the family has no idea what they're doing. At least when you're in a bar, you're getting feedback."

The Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey estimates that $75 million to $80 million will be wagered on the Super Bowl in Nevada, the only state where sports betting is legal. Betting on the Super Bowl is exceeded only by the collective "March Madness" of the NCAA's season-ending basketball tournament.

The council also estimates Americans will place an additional $4 billion in illegal Super Bowl bets, a great deal of it on the Internet, where the number of available sites exceeds 1,000.

But sports betting is not the only game in cybertown. The sites offer lotteries, bingo, cards, casino games, slots and horses. Besides the ban on sports betting, U.S. law forbids interstate gambling, but there is considerable ambiguity about whether a bettor is betting illegally when the server is on a Caribbean island, in Central America or farther away.

"Women tend to be casino gamblers, or they do bingo or slots -- it's 'Just leave me alone at a slot machine; I'm okay,' " O'Neill said. "Guys are into the competitive stuff -- blackjack, craps, sports betting."

But experts agree that players of both sexes are learning about gambling at an early age and get virtually no warnings about the possible dangers. "Public attitudes toward gambling are quite positive," said psychiatrist Jeffrey L. Derevensky, a youth gambling specialist at Montreal's McGill University. "This is the first generation of youth who will grow up when gambling is not only legal, but government-sanctioned."

Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling, noted that states took in $25 billion in lotteries alone in 1999, and that in 2000, revenue from legal gambling is likely to reach $60 billion when it's totaled up. "I believe that many states are very reluctant to look at problem gambling," Whyte said.

And teenagers and young adults are the age group most at risk: "Gambling as a phenomenon among kids is two to four times as bad as for adults," Derevensky said. "Four [percent] to 8 percent of adolescents have a very serious gambling problem." Studies since 1989 have shown an average of 66 percent of U.S. children ages 12 to 17 gambled for money in the previous year, with a mean age of 12 for their first wager.

Despite these warning signs, experts say national surveys on habits of abuse do not ask about gambling, nor is there an upsurge of grass-roots consciousness-raising or opposition to it.

"Young people have more problems, and they are into risk-taking," Blume said, noting that young gamblers are just as susceptible to getting hooked as young drinkers or drug abusers. "There's a feeling of invulnerability -- you never think anything bad is going to happen to you."

Gambling abuse is also largely invisible. "It's not as easy to trace as alcoholism," said Daniel Nestel, the NCAA's senior assistant director of federal relations in Washington. "There's no substance."

And in the credit card age, there's no fear of bookies, loan sharks or leg-breakers. "Our students can get three cards with $5,000 credit limits," Nestel added. "Once you've signed up with one, the other companies will find you."

Finally, gambling and the Internet are familiar companions for today's kids. At his son's computer lab, O'Neill found "seventh-graders didn't need any instruction. They can go right to [gambling sites]. I asked them, 'What do you think of this gambling stuff?' " O'Neill recalled. " 'Oh, Mr. O'Neill, it must be all right,' they said. 'It's online.' "

Reported by Newsbytes.com, www.newsbytes.com.

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