Gambling is a popular activity among college students and teens, whether it involves purchasing lottery tickets or betting on casino or sports game. Internet gambling has become popular too and presently it is the fastest growing game. Internet gambling websites have young adult and teens users. According to a study, almost 20 percent of college students gamble online once a month.
The monthly usage of online gambling websites among college students has increased phenomenally from 4.4 percent in the year 2008 to 16 percent in 2010. Though there has been an increase in the number of participants, yet frequency is 3 percent weekly. Female students gamble less compared to male but according to a survey, there is a sharp increase in offline gambling by females. Sports betting is a major reason for the increase in gambling among female college students.
Why do youths gamble?
The teens are living in societies where legal gambling is socially acceptable part from being highly visible and widely promoted. 48 states allow some kind of gambling. Casinos advertise hugely on radio, TV, billboard and online ads. Due to the visibility, prevalence, and glamour given to gambling, many teens are attracted to its thrill, gratification, and quick money.
Three main reasons stated by teens and youth for gambling include
- Enjoyment
- Excitement
- Win money.
Other reasons why they gamble are to relieve boredom, peer pressure, and relieve depression. This is mainly found among the college students where they play poker in local bars. Almost 16 million people have gambling addictions in the United States. When youths are searching and struggling for their identity, gambling appeals a lot to them due to its excitement value. When they lose in gambling, it results in low self-esteem, depression, and financial anxiety.
Reasons for concern
A study showed that adolescents showed significant reasons for concern, who are gambling online as well as offline. Among them, 36 percent of online players indicated a potential gambling problem against 8 percent offline gamblers. Problem gambling scores were based on answers to nine questions. Individuals who are into online gambling participate in several forms of gambling. It means that teens who are into online gambling are those who are looking out for many gambling experiences that can place them at higher risk. Teens also participate in free forms of online gambling including gambling on Facebook and free poker sites.
Measures
Schools are gradually recognizing the seriousness of gambling among students. You can easily figure out the students who have alcohol or drug problems, but a child who is gambling at an online site such as https://www.singapoker.org is an invisible problem. Colleges are educating students regarding gambling. Some are treating gambling addiction. Again, some are blocking gambling website from college servers.
At the political level, federal as well as state government is taking note of this matter. Anti-internet gambling provisions form a part of the Financial Anti-Terrorism Act. It bans online gambling sites to access financial service systems of the U.S. so that the flow of money is banned from terrorist organizations.