Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2000 | 11:06 a.m.
If your child or grandchild is under 21, the thought that he or she could be addicted to gambling is probably one of the least of your worries.
After all, every casino in Nevada is forbidden to allow minors to gamble. And casinos, fearing retribution from the Gaming Control Board if minors are caught violating this rule, are usually quick to 86 offenders.
You might believe that takes care of the problem -- that without casinos, your child's access to gambling is nil. That makes problem gambling an adult problem, right?
Wrong.
Despite little awareness of the problem by parents and educators, researchers say problem gambling is a huge problem among America's children and teenagers. While pathological gambling afflicts 1.5 percent of the adult population, it's believed to affect as much as 6 percent of those under the legal gambling age, mostly boys. Some researchers believe the risk is worse in a city like Las Vegas, where children are immersed in an environment that glamorizes gambling and where many parents earn a living from the gaming industry.
As children grow up in a country increasingly dominated by lotteries, casinos, video lottery machines, racetracks and bookies, researchers aren't at all certain if this problem will follow them into their adult lives.
"This is a dangerous social experiment we are entering into," said Jeff Derevensky, psychology professor and child psychologist at McGill University in Montreal. "This is the first generation of youth growing up in an environment where gambling is not only legal, but endorsed and often owned by the government."
How to help children with gambling addictions -- and how to keep more children from falling prey to it -- was the topic of debate at "The Comorbidity of Pathological Gambling," a national research conference organized by the National Center for Responsible Gaming. The conference concluded at the MGM Grand Tuesday.
Space at the conference center was donated by MGM Grand, the biggest hotel-casino owned by MGM MIRAGE.
A huge difficulty in combating the problem of childhood problem gambling, researchers say, is that so few parents or educators even realize that the problem is so widespread among children.
"If you walk into a PTA meeting and ask, 'Is there a gambling problem among kids?,' the answer would be no," Derevensky said. "The kids hide it really well."
Yet children engage in gambling at an incredibly high rate. By their junior year of high school, Derevensky said, more than 80 percent of teenagers gamble at least once a year, a higher rate than the incidence of drug use, alcohol use or smoking. More than a third gamble at least once a week.
Gambling usually begins at a very early age, typically by the age of 10. At 10, 37 percent of children have used alcohol in the past year, 18 percent have smoked and 3.5 percent have used drugs. But 79 percent have gambled.
And among children, Derevensky said, full-blown pathological gambling can take hold just two years after a child places his first wager -- a far quicker rate than adults.
Because of strict laws against children gambling in casinos, these children find alternative means for placing wagers. Children will wager on high school football games and professional sports with friends, secretly buy lottery tickets or play video lottery terminals, or join in card games with friends.
But experts warn it's a huge mistake for parents to view gambling by their children as a harmless pastime. Richard Evans, professor of psychology at the University of Houston, said gambling among children has been identified as a "gateway" activity to such problems as drug use and alcohol consumption. Moreover, children aren't as aware of the consequences of irresponsible gambling as adults -- and don't see the danger in letting gambling get out of control.
"They're not necessarily considerate of future consequences of their actions," Evans said. "They only consider the present."
Derevensky said he's seen the results of problem gambling among children. When their money runs out, children turn to theft -- first from family members and friends, then from other places. Derevensky said he's treated children who stole alimony checks, and one child who was caught stealing olive oil from a grocery store. The child was caught after store officials realized he was returning more bottles to the store than had been sold.
Other serious problems emerge among children who have gambling problems. Children with gambling problems are more likely to drop out of school, more likely to land in jail, have problems with class, have self-esteem problems, high depression rates and higher rates of suicide attempts, Derevensky said.
But who is to blame for the problem?
Despite laws that prohibit children from participating in legalized gaming, both Derevensky and Evans note that those that run legal gaming aren't totally without blame. Derevensky expressed concern over the "get rich quick" mentality used in lottery advertisements, an image he believes helps suck children into gambling. And Evans said the growth of Las Vegas as a family destination means millions of children are coming to Las Vegas for vacations -- and that experience reinforces the attraction of gambling for many children.
But both are quick to add that they don't believe legalized gaming -- either lotteries or casinos -- are the biggest factor in causing the problem. Instead, they say, parents aren't taking the necessary steps to ensure that their children don't gamble.
Few parents would offer to share a beer with their kids or would offer their child a marijuana joint, but it's common practice for parents to buy their children a lottery ticket, to place a friendly wager with them on a game, or to buy them a ticket at the racetrack, Derevensky said. Doing that can be a lethal trigger to gambling activities by children, he warned.
"I don't think we should be gambling with our children," Derevensky said. "As responsible parents, we have to make sure our children aren't gambling, and we have to stop glamorizing it as well."
Evans calls this "modeling" -- the tendency of a child to pick up activities after seeing a parent engaging in them. A parent can't offer a child a dollar to play in a slot machine, but can send a message by gambling that dollar in front of their child.
"Parents may not realize that about gambling," Evans said. "You can't necessarily blame an institution when parents don't have control. The answer isn't with the casinos, but with family control."
But how can the problem be treated? Derevensky said gambling, in and of itself, isn't the root of the problem for children affected by problem gambling. Rather, he said, gambling is a tool they use to escape from other problems, whether they be low self-esteem, family problems or problems at school.
Tough enforcement of laws that prevent minors from gambling helps reduce a child's access to legal gambling, while education helps remove some of the glamour a child may associate with betting. But gambling must be viewed as a symptom, and not the ultimate disease, Derevensky said -- and only helping children with their social skills and problem solving skills gets at the root of the problem of gambling addiction among children.
"Gambling is not the problem for these kids," Derevensky said. "Gambling becomes their solution for their problems. When they gamble, nothing else matters to them.
"Getting them off of gambling is not the trick. The trick is to make sure they don't use something else to solve their problems."
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