When my adult sons were young, they would take baseball cards to school to "flip" – heads you win, tails you lose, and winner take all. Some days they came home in tears because they’d lost their favorite cards. Their father and I would wipe their noses and lecture them on the perils of betting.
 
When my sons got to middle school the tears stopped, but I did notice that many days they returned home extremely hungry. I heard stories about poker games in the boys' bathroom but didn’t give that much thought. I certainly didn't connect it with the loss of my sons’ daily lunch money.
 
In high school the stakes grew. At one point a ten-speed bike, a Walkman, and assorted other big-ticket items disappeared from our house. My son admitted that he had lost those items in a card game but that all was "under control."

That ten-speed, by the way, reappeared and disappeared several more times before graduation.
 
Does this sound familiar to you as a parent?

Twice as Likely to Become Addicted 
The fact is that gambling has become a fixture in our society. World-class poker competitions attract millions of television viewers, and it is easy to gamble – legally or not – on the Internet.
 
Most adults can handle recreational gambling. But many kids cannot.
 
Proponents of legalized gambling maintain that only a small percentage of adults who gamble -- about 5 percent -- become addicts. But what about teens and preteens?
 
The reality is that the adolescent brain is very receptive to the adrenaline high that is created by betting, and craving for that high develops rapidly. Researchers find that kids are twice as likely as adults to become addicted to gambling once they begin.
 
Compounding this factor of brain chemistry is the simple fact that gambling is a "silent" addiction. It is hard to see. Unlike with other addictions, there are no obvious physical signs -- no sniffles, red eyes, or track marks -- for parents or teachers to notice.

The disease has the potential to quietly progresses to a pathological stage. 

Gambling is Readily Available 
It is very easy to gamble in this country.

Most states have some form of legalized gambling, from casinos to off-track betting to lotteries. It is estimated that more than 80 percent of American adults now gamble at least occasionally. 
  

Kids will be kids, and they want to participate in grown-up activities. When such activities produce thrills, the lure is even greater. And gambling – even on the lottery – can produce a big high.

Incidentally, some people argue that the negative effects of teen gambling are offset by the positive honing of kids' math skills used to calculate odds.

 Phooey!

"Addition" never trumps addiction.

Beginning Today 
A first step to limiting teen gambling is to make it more difficult for youth to participate.
 
While it is difficult to legislate participation in Internet gambling or to control informal teen gambling sessions, we as a society can make it illegal to sell lottery tickets to anyone who doesn't show positive proof of being over 21 years of age.
 
And we can pass legislation -- local and national -- to ban the advertisement of lottery tickets and insist they be placed out of sight, rather than displayed at the checkout counters.
 

When the American public decided that smoking cigarettes was harmful for our kids, a strong message was sent to Big Tobacco and legal changes followed.

It's time we deliver the same type of message to the gambling industry, even when that industry is our own State.

The alternative is to assume that a gambling addiction will never affect your teen.
 
Personally, I wouldn't bet on that assumption.
 
 
Judy Shepps Battle is a New Jersey resident, addictions specialist, consultant and freelance writer. She can be reached by e-mail at writeaction@aol.com. Additional information on this and other topics can be found at her website at http://www.writeaction.com.

Copyright 2009 Judy Shepps Battle