What are the roles of loneliness and school when teenagers are targeted for online gambling?
“We avoid discussing myths versus facts,” Rogers explains, because research shows students remember myths and confuse them with facts. Drawing on the failed experience of the anti-drug DARE program, gambling materials tell children what gambling is but not how to do it.
“We’re not teaching them how to gamble,” Rogers said. Small tests between sections show whether children understand what they have learned.
What are the prospects for more states taking this step?
“States are interested in replicating what Virginia is doing,” Rogers said. Legislation is being considered in Massachusetts and New Jersey. At the same time, a lack of federal leadership has hampered state efforts because there is no national plan to address problem gambling that states can simply adopt. Governments may also be slow to respond to threats that do not appear to pose imminent danger.
“The school system has not kept pace with the health system, and the health system has not kept pace with the trends in the gambling industry,” Doura-Schawohl explained, noting that it took about 30 years to take action on the health risks associated with tobacco, alcohol and opioids. The fact that states receive revenue from legalized gambling also dampens enthusiasm for strict regulation. Gambling proceeds provided a new source of state funding.
Not everyone who studies gambling addiction believes that mandatory school programs focused on prohibition are the best way to prevent problem gambling. “Addiction and loneliness go hand in hand,” psychiatrist Timothy Fong, co-director of UCLA’s Gambling Research Program and avid study of all things gambling, told me.
Young people trapped in addictive behaviors are looking for quick ways to achieve financial and social success; they cannot resist the promise of “easy” money through their own devices. “They think, ‘I need to make money quickly to feel good about myself,'” Fong said. “What’s missing from their lives is cultivating kindness, empathy, gratitude, compassion, and a heightened sense of citizenship and pride in themselves and their communities.”
Of course, young people need to have a foundation in financial literature and probability, but he added that it would be more effective to address the false expectations and illusions of getting rich through gambling. Children need to be connected to others, not just immersed in anti-gambling lessons, especially adult mentors who can counteract social media messages and misinformation.
“There’s no magic bullet,” Rogers said, acknowledging that solving the problem would require more than one 90-minute session on the dangers of gambling. Kids need tools to succeed and better ways to reduce stress. “It’s just one thing,” she added.
Jonathan Cohen, author Big losses: America’s reckless bet on gamblingTold me that school principals had started calling him asking for guidance on how to deal with emerging issues, like middle school students talking openly about gambling and bragging about their wins. Cohen believes parents and schools need to talk to kids about gambling and at least challenge the dominant narrative spread by social media influencers and TV personalities: that gambling is glamorous and fun and causes no harm.
