(AgapePress) - Experts say millions of American teenagers are taking up gambling and losing big.

A 2002 regional survey by the Delaware Council on Gambling Problems (DCGP) found that more than 30% of all high school students gamble periodically. And the evidence indicates that gambling is a problem not only among older teens in high school, but among younger students as well. The study found that 43% of eighth-grade boys and 19% of eighth grade girls gamble.

The council's deputy director, Linda Graves, says these children are among the first generation in America to grow up with gambling as an acceptable part of the culture. Because of a change in societal attitudes toward gambling in the past 20 years, parents and grandparents are more apt to engage young people in gambling activities. And Graves says many young people who get involved with gambling are mimicking adult behavior.

"Boys like sports betting -- making wagers on their own skill and abilities in shooting hoops and things like that, but also betting on sports teams. That's the number-one thing for boys. Girls like lottery tickets and playing Bingo," she says.

While Graves says the incidence of teenage gambling is much higher among boys than among girls, studies indicate that all teenagers who gamble are more prone to make other damaging lifestyle decisions.

"An eighth grader that gambles is 50 percent more likely to drink alcohol, three times more likely to use marijuana or other illegal drugs, and three times more likely to get into trouble with the police, get involved with gang violence, or steal or shoplift," Graves says.

The DCGP is a state affiliate of the National Council on Problem Gambling, Inc. that works to raise public awareness about gambling and to facilitate the development of a network of services for compulsive gamblers and their families.

© 2003 AgapePress all rights reserved.

E-mail this page to a friend

Printer-Friendly Version

Read all of our current headlines