YOUTH GAMBLING ON RISE IN U.S., CANADA

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The rapid growth of legalized gambling in the
United States and Canada has drawn more and more teen-agers into games of
chance, with many finding it addictive, researchers reported Saturday.

``We call it the silent addiction. You can't smell it on their breath, you
can't see it in their eyes,'' said Jeffrey Derevensky of McGill University
in Montreal. ``Gambling is going to become a huge social policy issue.''

A set of studies presented Saturday at a meeting of the American
Psychological Association revealed that between 5 and 8 percent of young
Americans and Canadians report a ``serious'' gambling problem -- a
prevalence almost twice as high as that among adults.

From card games in school cafeterias to sports betting pools and visits to
casinos, gambling among teen-agers is rising, fueled in large part by
massive advertising campaigns for state lotteries, the researchers said.

``They become involved with gambling sooner than they become involved with
smoking and alcohol use,'' said Randy Stinchfield of the University of
Minnesota, who surveyed almost 200,000 Minnesota teen-agers on their
gambling habits.

``This is the first generation of kids exposed to widespread gambling
advertising, and gambling opportunities. Some kids are now seeing gambling
as a rite of passage.''

Every U.S. state except Hawaii and Utah now has some legal form of
gambling, ranging from casinos and bingo parlors to state-run lotteries.
Last month, 13 Ohio factory workers broke a new record when they parlayed a
$130 investment into a $161 million prize in the Powerball contest.

Researchers said the hype around huge lottery pay-offs was helping to draw
young children into a culture of gambling.

``The lottery does have that effect,'' said Durand Jacobs of Loma Linda
University in Redland, Calif. ``I call it the Pied Piper of gambling for
kids.''

Jacobs' research said that while alcohol remained the major threat for most
teen-agers, gambling is catching up quickly and is already a larger problem
than teen smoking or drug abuse.

Research is now under way to determine possible physiological reasons for
compulsive gambling, including the brain's need for a particular type of
stimulus. Adolescents, whose brain patterns are still forming, may be at
particular risk for addiction, he said.

``Their brains need the stimulation,'' Jacobs said. ''Adolescents believe
they are invulnerable, and that they are smarter than everybody else.''

Stinchfield's study showed how pervasive gambling has already become among
youth. Some 80 percent of teen-age boys surveyed in Minnesota reported
gambling at least once during the previous year, and 20 percent of them
gambled weekly.

``Boys gambled three to four times more often than girls, and older
students gambled more often than younger students,'' Stinchfield said.

While most teen-agers begin gambling by betting on card games or sporting
events, they tend to migrate toward established gambling venues such as
casinos and race tracks as they grow older, Stinchfield said.

In Canada, researchers at McGill reported similar results, saying that
those adolescents who reported high rates of gambling were also far more
likely to drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes or consume drugs.

Derevensky said one major obstacle to dealing with gambling was the
widespread perception that it was harmless. Many teen-agers placed their
first bets at home, wagering with their parents or siblings in games around
the kitchen table.

``It is a socially acceptable activity,'' Derevensky said. ''Kids are just
not afraid of getting caught gambling.''

The researchers said they were concerned that youth gambling was rarely
addressed by school programs aimed at preventing other dangerous behavior
such as smoking or alcohol abuse. They also said that more study was needed
to see what types of programs were effective.

In Canada, a pilot program is under way at McGill which, along with more
traditional methods of addiction treatment, seeks to help teen-agers break
the gambling habit by explaining to them how completely the odds are stacked.

``They all have a system, they all think they can win,'' Derevensky said.
``The idea we are trying to get across is that the more you gamble, the
more you are going to."

Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.

Checked-by: Richard Lake