STUDY LINKS TEEN GAMBLING, RISKY BEHAVIORS

CHICAGO (Reuters) - About half of Vermont teen-agers surveyed said they
gambled, and those that did were more likely to engage in other risky
behaviors such as illegal drug use and violence, researchers said Monday.

A survey of 17,000 eighth-through 12th-grade students in Vermont found 53
percent reported gambling in the last 12 months, and 7 percent said the
practice caused them problems with friends and family, according to the
report published in the journal Pediatrics.

Between 76 percent and 91 percent of all teen-agers will have gambled by
the time they reach their final year of high school, estimated researchers
at Harvard Medical School's Children's Hospital in Boston.

The Harvard study found that 15 percent of the Vermont respondents who had
gambled in the past year had also used illegal drugs, double the rate of
those who had not gambled. Among those who reported gambling caused them
problems, the proportion using illegal drugs rose to 28 percent.

It also found that gambling teenagers were approximately twice as likely as
non-gamblers to have been in a fight or to have carried a weapon in the
past month.

The study's authors said their findings confirmed gambling to be common
among youth when the addiction often begins, and highlighted the need for
early intervention programs.

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Checked-by: Mike Gogulski