Research Report: New Studies on Youth Gambling

Understanding youth gambling is important not only because adolescents are generally considered vulnerable to a range of potentially addictive behaviors, but also because most adult pathological gamblers report the onset of their gambling at an early age. Learning about why and how young people gamble and identifying those who develop problems will eventually lead to effective prevention and intervention strategies.
 
Since the 1995 North American Think Tank on Youth Gambling Issues called for research on this population, an increasing number of scientists have turned their attention to youth gambling, thanks in part to the National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG) which has awarded more than $500,000 in research grants studying youth. One of the first projects funded by the NCRG recently released its findings in the March issue of Psychology of Addictive Behaviors (Winters, Stinchfield, Botzet, Anderson, 2002). The University of Minnesota study, "The Prospective Study of Youth Gambling Behaviors," revealed that problem gambling rates among the youth population had no significant changes over an eight-year span. The investigation, led by Ken Winters, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry, was motivated by concerns that early gambling involvement and continued exposure to gambling opportunities would trigger a meaningful increase in the rate of heavy gambling and problem gambling during late adolescence. The study was not able to validate these concerns.
 
The study did find, however, a considerable increase in Òat-riskÓ youth gamblers, those individuals with potential to move toward a more severe level of problem gambling at some future time. "The rapid expansion of legalized gambling has increased concerns that our country is producing a young generation of over-involved gamblers," said Winters. "This study provides the most scientific examination to date as to what happens to young gamblers as they age into young adulthood."
 
The study involved interviews with 305 Minnesota-based students at three intervals (ages 16, 18 and 24) over an eight-year period. Although the study found no significant increase in the rate of problem gamblers from adolescence to young adulthood, it found several risk factors that would likely contribute to the potential for future gambling problems, including early interest in gambling, substance abuse, school problems, juvenile delinquency, being a male and parental history of problem gambling.
 
"Because of the significant increase in the rate of at-risk gamblers at the young adulthood stage, perhaps the most important assessment we can make from this study is the importance of monitoring the course of gambling behaviors as young people mature and to initiate prevention programs prior to the teenage years," said Winters.

"Screening teenagers and young adults with a high-risk profile for possible gambling problems is a crucial element to prevention, as well," Winters added. "Additionally, the possible etiological role of family history highlights the importance of educating parents about how their gambling behavior can negatively influence gambling attitudes of their children."
 
Past studies on youth gambling have similarly indicated that youth prevalence rates – although higher than adult prevalence rates – have remained stable over time.  The most comprehensive study available is the meta-analysis conducted by Howard Shaffer and Matthew Hall at Harvard Medical School.  Their study of the prevalence of gambling disorders in the United States and Canada, published in theCanadian Journal of Public Health in 2000, estimated that between 4.4 percent and 7.4 percent of adolescents will experience serious problems with gambling (Shaffer & Hall 2000).

However, Nevada's recently released report on youth gambling, "Gambling and Problem Gambling Among Adolescents in Nevada," estimated that between 1.3 percent and 3.1 percent "have experienced severe difficulties related to their gambling in the past year…" (Volberg, 2002). The investigator, Rachel Volberg, president of Gemini Research, reported that adolescents in Nevada are less likely to gamble weekly or more than their counterparts in Georgia, New York, Texas and Washington State.  While Volberg's hypotheses about the characteristics of gamblers and problem gamblers (e.g., boys are more likely to gamble) as well as correlates of problem gambling (e.g., use of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana and other illicit drugs) were confirmed by this study, the data did not support other hypotheses. The study revealed that, compared with other states, adolescents in Nevada do not gamble more, rarely gamble in casinos, do not have a higher rate of problem gambling, are not more likely
to report that one or both parents gamble, and do not start gambling at an earlier age than their counterparts in other jurisdictions.

 REFERENCES

• Shaffer, H. J., & Hall, M.N. (2001). Updating and refining meta-analytic prevalence  estimates of disordered gambling behavior in the United States and Canada. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 92 (3), 168-172.
   
• Winters, K.C., Stinchfield, R.D., Botzet, A. & Anderson, N. (2002) A prospective study of youth gambling behaviors. Psychology of Addictive Disorders 16 (1), 3-9
   
• Volberg, R. (2002). Gambling and Problem Gambling Among Adolescents in Nevada. Nevada Department of Human Resources. Retrieved May 13, 2002, from Gemini Research Web site:www.geminiresearch.com.