More underage gambling!

As if the whole Neopets controversy isn’t enough, how about this article from Canada.com?

Internet wagering is a growing phenomenon among adolescents because they love the thrill of risk and are comfortable with interactive games, gambling experts said yesterday.

“There are more kids gaining access to Internet gambling because there are more and more teens with credit cards, especially in the more privileged walks of life,” said Rina Gupta, co-director of the International Centre for Youth Gambling Problems and High Risk Behaviour at McGill University. “Internet gambling is quite a concern to us.”

Teen gambling came to the forefront in a most dramatic way this week, as Lower Canada College had to deal with a student who initiated a counterfeit money scheme to finance gambling debts of thousands of dollars.

In all, about 12 students were involved in distributing or using $12,000 in bogus money. The four boys in Grades 9 and 10 who formed the core group have been permanently withdrawn from the private Notre Dame de Grace school.

One Grade 9 boy stored the bills under his bed and helped destroy them after school officials began asking questions.

“The main organizers claimed they were motivated by the thrill and risk of gambling, by the desire to make ‘quick money’ and/or by the notoriety that comes from having a wad of bills in your hands,” LCC headmaster Paul Bennett said.

Studies show 55 to 85 per cent of teens gamble for money, and they begin as early as Grade 4.

About 10 to 15 per cent of teens have gambling-related problems, like lying or stealing to cover up their gambling. About 5 per cent qualify as addicted to gambling.

Gupta said about five per cent of adolescents are wagering on the Internet and that number is probably growing.

“It’s very hard to use the Internet without getting a pop-up for an online casino,” Gupta said.

“They may start by betting $20 but then quickly go up to $1,500 to get that arousal.”

Some clues that a teenager has a gambling problem include:

Being obsessive about watching every sports event.

Unusual interest in money and the value of goods.

Items missing from the home.

Falling grades.

Internet gambling a magnet for teens


You read that right–a Canadian counterfeiting ring of high school kids who gamble online. It sounds like some bad afterschool special or something.

“Unusual interest in money and the value of goods” is actually something that most people who don’t want to spend their way into inescapable credit card debt would be well to show.

As for Neopets, I got a nice, generic reply to my earlier post about the kids’ gambling site. Either McDonald’s or Neopets is doing some serious online spin control. Personally, I’m not all that fired up about the “threat to children.” I grew up in Atlantic City so I’ve always been surrounded by gambling. But a corporate shill trying to tell us that asking children to play “Brucey B seven-line slots” isn’t familiarizing them with gambling is either completely vapid or disingenuous.

Still, I like the idea of “free omlettes and jellies” being given out to all who need them. Change it to protein shakes and healthy salads and I’m ready to move in.

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