It's a fall weekend, and that means football. Your son’s favorite team has the game well in hand. The opposition scores a late, meaningless touchdown to cut the final margin. Instead of shrugging it off, your son acts as if his weekend has been ruined. Well, if he’s like an increasing number of kids, it may have been. That touchdown cut the margin of victory just enough to prevent the winning team from meeting its "cover." If you don’t know what "cover" means, rest assured that millions of high school and college-age young people do.
For many, the word gambling brings to mind middle-age men at racetracks or on the phone with their bookies. But the stereotypical face of gambling is quickly being superseded by a younger, more affluent face placing the bet. This transition has caught many by surprise. Jim Caswell, the vice president for student affairs at Southern Methodist University, probably didn’t associate gambling with college students. That is, until a student told him about recruiting efforts at the school by online gambling sites.
Make no mistake, a lot of people between 15 and 21 place more than the occasional wager. One survey of 1,700 students at schools across the country found that 33 percent of all male students and 15 percent of all female students bet on sporting events at least once a week. The incidence may be even higher among athletes. A survey of students attending member schools in the Southeastern Conference, home to such sports powers as Tennessee, Georgia, Florida and Alabama, found that student athletes may be twice as likely than nonathletes to bet on sports.
And the problem extends beyond college students. A study conducted by the Harvard School of Medicine, whose findings were published in the September 1999 issue of the American Journal of Public Health estimates that nearly 6 percent of American kids under 18 have a serious gambling problem. That’s more than 1 million teenagers. The Harvard study’s findings are consistent with other studies that found that 30 percent of New Jersey high school students surveyed admitted to gambling at least twice a week, and 90 percent admitted to betting at least once a year.
A Problem of Technology
The growth of gambling among kids would have been nearly impossible without computers and the Internet. As William Saum, Director of Gambling and Agent Activities for the NCAA, says, "No population group has greater access to computers than college students. . . . They are wired right in their dorm rooms." Colleges help the process by requiring the purchase of computers and making going online very easy. They provide wired dorm rooms and free or reduced-cost Internet access.
While high school students don’t have it quite as easy as college students, they’re almost as wired. A computer in your own room, away from Mom and Dad’s prying eyes, is considered almost a right in many middle-class homes. The problem is that there’s a lot more you can do on the Web than research term papers. This includes more than 300 Web sites where a person can gamble his life away without ever getting dressed—up from 15 sites only three years ago. All of these sites are located offshore in places like Antigua, where they escape the scrutiny of state and federal regulators.
But how do you place a bet with someone in Antigua if you’re stuck in Grand Rapids? And where does a young person get such money? Unless his parents are rich, it comes from plastic. According to National Public Radio, the average college student receives 25 credit card solicitations per semester.
According to Saum of the NCAA, 67 percent of all college students have credit cards, with an average spending limit of $5,000. The average credit card debt of today’s graduating senior is $2,200. Given the incidence of sports betting, it’s a safe bet—sorry!—that a significant portion of that debt represents money lost betting on sporting events. And the debt gap between high school and college-age kids is quickly shrinking. A recent article in the Legal Intelligencer pointed out that credit card issuers are beginning to target high school students.
A Shift in Attitudes
The third factor is a change in cultural attitudes toward gambling. Gambling, like the poor, has always been among us. But 25 years ago, gambling was legal in only one state: Nevada. A person wanting to place a bet either had to fly somewhere like Las Vegas or the Bahamas, or he had to make the acquaintance of people with bent noses and nicknames like "The Undertaker."
Today, nearly every state has some form of legalized gambling. Dependent on the revenue generated by gambling, states spend millions of dollars to persuade their residents that gambling is a civic duty, sort of like voting. In Virginia, where I live, television commercials feature "Lady Luck" chiding people if they don’t play the lottery often enough.
Of course, these ads downplay the long odds against winning. And they don’t make any mention of the many lives that have been ruined by compulsive gambling. No, the message is "gambling is cool. Just make sure that the government gets its share of the action."
Little wonder that kids such as Brooke Delane of Columbia, Md., tell The Washington Times that "I don’t think [gambling’s] that big a deal." She might if Maryland told her about kids like Cory. Cory, who is now 21, placed his first serious bet when he was 10. He lost $150, which was $100 more than he had. So he got the money by stealing it out his dad’s wallet. As Cory got older, he became a heavy sports bettor, eventually financing his gambling by becoming a bookie, whereupon he was arrested.
Or they could tell the story of Josh Wishoff. While he was a student at San Diego State, Josh got into gambling because he considered it a kind of "victimless form of entertainment." Before he knew what hit him, he owed $15,000 and his utilities were turned off for nonpayment. He’d maxed out his credit cards. He’d write checks to pay his bills and then stop payment on the checks to use the money for his habit. Sometimes, he would literally spend the last penny in his pocket, forcing him to walk home because he didn’t have cab fare.
Both Cory and Josh got help, but not before they literally hit bottom. It’s kids like these, growing up in a culture where technology and cultural attitudes encourage gambling, that worries people like William Saum. And it should worry every parent. Our kids are constantly being led into temptation. The question is: Are they ready to resist?
http://www.family.org/fofmag/pp/a0024010.cfm
For many, the word gambling brings to mind middle-age men at racetracks or on the phone with their bookies. But the stereotypical face of gambling is quickly being superseded by a younger, more affluent face placing the bet. This transition has caught many by surprise. Jim Caswell, the vice president for student affairs at Southern Methodist University, probably didn’t associate gambling with college students. That is, until a student told him about recruiting efforts at the school by online gambling sites.
Make no mistake, a lot of people between 15 and 21 place more than the occasional wager. One survey of 1,700 students at schools across the country found that 33 percent of all male students and 15 percent of all female students bet on sporting events at least once a week. The incidence may be even higher among athletes. A survey of students attending member schools in the Southeastern Conference, home to such sports powers as Tennessee, Georgia, Florida and Alabama, found that student athletes may be twice as likely than nonathletes to bet on sports.
And the problem extends beyond college students. A study conducted by the Harvard School of Medicine, whose findings were published in the September 1999 issue of the American Journal of Public Health estimates that nearly 6 percent of American kids under 18 have a serious gambling problem. That’s more than 1 million teenagers. The Harvard study’s findings are consistent with other studies that found that 30 percent of New Jersey high school students surveyed admitted to gambling at least twice a week, and 90 percent admitted to betting at least once a year.
A Problem of Technology
The growth of gambling among kids would have been nearly impossible without computers and the Internet. As William Saum, Director of Gambling and Agent Activities for the NCAA, says, "No population group has greater access to computers than college students. . . . They are wired right in their dorm rooms." Colleges help the process by requiring the purchase of computers and making going online very easy. They provide wired dorm rooms and free or reduced-cost Internet access.
While high school students don’t have it quite as easy as college students, they’re almost as wired. A computer in your own room, away from Mom and Dad’s prying eyes, is considered almost a right in many middle-class homes. The problem is that there’s a lot more you can do on the Web than research term papers. This includes more than 300 Web sites where a person can gamble his life away without ever getting dressed—up from 15 sites only three years ago. All of these sites are located offshore in places like Antigua, where they escape the scrutiny of state and federal regulators.
But how do you place a bet with someone in Antigua if you’re stuck in Grand Rapids? And where does a young person get such money? Unless his parents are rich, it comes from plastic. According to National Public Radio, the average college student receives 25 credit card solicitations per semester.
According to Saum of the NCAA, 67 percent of all college students have credit cards, with an average spending limit of $5,000. The average credit card debt of today’s graduating senior is $2,200. Given the incidence of sports betting, it’s a safe bet—sorry!—that a significant portion of that debt represents money lost betting on sporting events. And the debt gap between high school and college-age kids is quickly shrinking. A recent article in the Legal Intelligencer pointed out that credit card issuers are beginning to target high school students.
A Shift in Attitudes
The third factor is a change in cultural attitudes toward gambling. Gambling, like the poor, has always been among us. But 25 years ago, gambling was legal in only one state: Nevada. A person wanting to place a bet either had to fly somewhere like Las Vegas or the Bahamas, or he had to make the acquaintance of people with bent noses and nicknames like "The Undertaker."
Today, nearly every state has some form of legalized gambling. Dependent on the revenue generated by gambling, states spend millions of dollars to persuade their residents that gambling is a civic duty, sort of like voting. In Virginia, where I live, television commercials feature "Lady Luck" chiding people if they don’t play the lottery often enough.
Of course, these ads downplay the long odds against winning. And they don’t make any mention of the many lives that have been ruined by compulsive gambling. No, the message is "gambling is cool. Just make sure that the government gets its share of the action."
Little wonder that kids such as Brooke Delane of Columbia, Md., tell The Washington Times that "I don’t think [gambling’s] that big a deal." She might if Maryland told her about kids like Cory. Cory, who is now 21, placed his first serious bet when he was 10. He lost $150, which was $100 more than he had. So he got the money by stealing it out his dad’s wallet. As Cory got older, he became a heavy sports bettor, eventually financing his gambling by becoming a bookie, whereupon he was arrested.
Or they could tell the story of Josh Wishoff. While he was a student at San Diego State, Josh got into gambling because he considered it a kind of "victimless form of entertainment." Before he knew what hit him, he owed $15,000 and his utilities were turned off for nonpayment. He’d maxed out his credit cards. He’d write checks to pay his bills and then stop payment on the checks to use the money for his habit. Sometimes, he would literally spend the last penny in his pocket, forcing him to walk home because he didn’t have cab fare.
Both Cory and Josh got help, but not before they literally hit bottom. It’s kids like these, growing up in a culture where technology and cultural attitudes encourage gambling, that worries people like William Saum. And it should worry every parent. Our kids are constantly being led into temptation. The question is: Are they ready to resist?
http://www.family.org/fofmag/pp/a0024010.cfm
