Parents worry. Why wouldn’t they? There are so many ways their kids can go wrong.
So imagine a father finding a lot of cash in his son’s room. He’s gotta wonder. Where’d the kid get all this money? Is he selling drugs? Stealing? Both? Worry turns to fear.
Sonny boy comes home and he gets the third degree from dad. Where’d you get all this dough? You dealing? Is this why your grades are dropping? You playing hooky to score?
Oh, no, says the apple of dad’s eye. It’s all good. I won that money playing “Texas hold ’em” with my friends at the playground.
Dad is relieved. After all, his son isn’t into drugs. He’s just playing cards. No worries.
Maybe.
Odds are the kid isn’t a hardcore gambler, but they aren’t fantastic odds. Four to 6 percent of adolescents could have gambling problems, estimated Jim Pappas, executive director of the Council for Compulsive Gambling of Pennsylvania. That’s about twice the percentage of adults who are gambling addicts.
ldquo;The majority of adults who gamble, gamble responsibly,” said Carl Robertson, the council’s prevention manager. That can’t be said for adolescents, he added.
ldquo;They have very little impulse control,” Robertson said.
That control, he added, comes when their brains are fully developed — when they’re 22 to 24 years old.
It’s not unusual for adults to be surprised that there are a lot of kids who have gambling addictions, Robertson said, because awareness of the problem is just beginning to grow.
There are a few organizations trying to widen that awareness. CORA Services is one of them. Since September, the Catholic service organization’s counselors, Jessica Paist and Melissa Reich, have been visiting non-public and charter schools to teach kids about gambling — not how to play, but how they can recognize gambling’s realities and risks.
The idea is prevention, Mary K. Doherty, director of CORA’s Community Services Division, said during a recent interview at CORA’s Verree Road office.
ldquo;Gambling is sort of invisible,” said Melissa McCullough, CORA’s clinical supervisor. “It might go unnoticed. It has been unnoticed.”
What parents should realize is that the warning signs of compulsive gambling are much like those of any other addiction. Reich, Paist and McCullough listed them:
• Depression
• Falling grades
• Trouble with relationships
• Acting out
• Sleeplessness
• Appearing preoccupied
• Lying
• Stealing
• Truancy
ldquo;This has to do with the addictive quality of the activity,” Doherty said. “Kids haven’t developed impulse control . . . they don’t have the ability to make good decisions. Kids get involved with gambling because it looks like easy money to them, and it quickly turns into an addiction.”
And it can start early, Robertson said. Adult gamblers, he explained, have claimed they started making their bets when they were 10 to 12 years of age.
Some young kids might start playing the card game Fish with Halloween candy, Reich said. Older kids might be making sports bets or might be bookies, she and Paist explained.
Kids have to realize that they are not putting limits on gambling, or that they’re thinking about it all the time. We all are surrounded by gambling. Kids notice it, the counselors said.
Lotteries make big news. Mom and grandmom play bingo at church. The parish school runs a March Madness basketball pool. Dad’s in a 13 Run baseball pool at his job and watches the “Texas hold ’em” tournaments on TV. Then there are 50–50 tickets, charity raffles and football Super Bowl squares. And the family hosted a “gambling birthday party” for a big brother that included poker, roulette and dice.
Some adults have the attitude that it is no big deal if their kids gamble; at least they’re not using drugs, Paist said.
To children, gambling is socially acceptable, Reich said. They see gambling as normal behavior because, in their households and their schools, it is just that — normal.
How do you tell children that some gambling might be a problem? Although they might see gambling as OK, they will see having a gambling problem as just the opposite, Doherty said.
ldquo;No kid is going to walk through the door and admit to having a gambling problem,” Doherty said, explaining it’s more likely they’ll come to a CORA counselor for help addressing other issues.
Children don’t like it when they hear some gambling is wrong, Paist said. They get upset, Reich said. They want to see things as black and white. When gambling problems are discussed, they feel the counselors are telling them they’re bad people, that their parents are bad people.
ldquo;We try a soft approach,” Doherty said.
CORA’s program is three 45-minute sessions that already have been in 16 schools, McCullough said. But not all educators are convinced the program is worthwhile.
The counselors try to convey to teachers and principals that gambling could be a problem when they are considering whether a child has substance-abuse problems or difficulties at home, Paist said.
ldquo;Gambling is not on their radar,” she added.
Through a series of exercises and a video game, kids are asked if they know people who gamble or if they’ve gambled. Almost all say they have, but they are shown that they really don’t know much about it.
Doherty said the counselors don’t want the children to get personal, so the counselors don’t ask for private information.
The kids are asked to use phrases like “Someone I know . . .” Reich said.
The point isn’t to get children to talk openly about themselves, their friends or their family, McCullough said, but to educate children about what gambling is — and what its risks are.
The counselors also stress the difference between what is OK and what is a problem.
ldquo;We have to show kids that playing bingo doesn’t mean you’re an addict,” Paist said.
Reich said children apply “magical thinking” to their perceptions of gambling. They think they really can control what happens. They are surprised when they are shown how bad the odds can be and that they really don’t have lucky numbers. Eventually, they’re shown how little they control a game and how their luck can run out.
In one exercise, Reich explained, she puts five colored chips — white, black, red, green and blue — into a bag. Each child is asked to pick the color of the chip he or she believes will be drawn from the bag. Children then stand in a section of their classroom assigned to a particular color.
When the chip is drawn, the children who didn’t pick its color sit down. The chip is returned to the bag, and the kids who are still standing can then pick the color of the chip they believe will be drawn next. They move to the parts of the class assigned to the colors they chose. Those who didn’t guess correctly sit down, and the process starts again. It doesn’t take long for all the kids to be seated, Reich said.
What might make parents sit down and think about all of this is some of the problems their kids face if they get addicted to gambling and how quickly that can happen.
A kid can become a compulsive gambler in as little as six weeks, Doherty said. They can’t get addicted to drugs or alcohol that quickly.
Some children get involved in dealing drugs to pay off their gambling debts, or bully others kids to collect debts that are owed to them. Credit-card bills can be run up to pay those debts, too, Doherty said.
The risks are there for every kind of problem once a kid becomes a compulsive gambler — drugs, crime, joblessness, depression and suicide. The value of prevention can’t be measured, Doherty said.
Learn more about CORA Services’ gambling-prevention program by calling 215–342–7660.
Reporter John Loftus can be reached at 215–354–3110 or jloftus@bsmphilly.com
