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Maryann Guberman has been a writer and editor with many gaming publications, including Sports Form, Card Player, Poker World, Player's Panorama and Systems and Methods. She also has written and edited numerous books on gambling.

Oct. 8, 2004

Underage and Compulsive Gambling: Poker's Two Problems

The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side. -- Hunter S. Thompson

For the first time in history, poker and gambling have become the fad du jour, and it seems as if everyone who isn't glued to the religious right is scrambling to become part of the craze. While you may not agree with the philosophies of those who oppose gambling, you should respect the fact that they don't want this craze to invade their lives.

The two biggest negatives that have always been associated with gambling will soon become a battle cry that may, in the end, bring this runaway rage to a screeching halt.

We have to accept the fact that underage gambling, aside from being illegal in the United States and other countries, is a problem and we have to accept the fact that compulsive gambling is a problem. Many times, too, the underage gambler grows up to be a compulsive gambler so the two often go hand in hand.

This preface serves to offset the argument that each individual--especially in a free country--is responsible for his own actions and whatever each one chooses to do should not be open for discussion, treatment, persecution or prosecution.

"Every kid I knew growing up in Brooklyn gambled," a friend told me when when we were discussing this topic. "So what?"

"And they all became winners?" I asked almost rehetorically.

The "everybody's doing it" philosophy just doesn't apply here as reason or excuse.

The biographies of many of today's professional gamblers almost always reveal that they learned to gamble at a young age, often picking up the influence from their parents. In fact, much of the literature that discusses problematic gambling among young men and women states first and foremost that they learn about gambling from a parent. And, if parents don't mind their kids gambling, then fine. But times have changed and today, young people don't just pick up on gambling from family.

Kids today are learning about gambling from the World Poker Tour, the World Series of Poker, Celebrity Poker the Travel Channel, ESPN, Harrah's and a dozen or so prominent casino and cardrooms that are now affiliated with the production of poker on TV. They are learing about it from surfing the web, from nefarious pop-up ads, from spamming emails. And instead of begging mom or dad for ninety bucks for a pair of Nikes, Junior is now "investing" his lunch money and allowance in a poker game with his buds at school or online

In June of 2002, in an informal study, the FTC found that Intenet gambling sites had inadequate warnings about underage gambling prohibitions, and that some 20 percent had no warning at all. The survey found that these gambling sites had no effective mechanism to block minors from entering.

Earlier studies by different juristictions where gambling exists (casinos, lotteries, horse racing, etc.) have shown that anywhere from 60 to 80 percent of the teenage population (sixth through 12th graders) gambled more than once.

It's not just in the USA, either.

A report out of Great Britain in July 2004 noted ab experiment where a 16-year old girl was able to register on 30 gambling sites using her Solo (ATM/debit) card while .only seven others stopped her by requiring more than a statemt attesting to her legal age. A week later the government threatened to take away the licenses and/or fine any UK site that did not take sufficient measures to curb access to games of chance BY underage individuals.

While I find no reason to prohibit gambling, I think it's a negative for youngsters to gamble.

Some of these kids may get it but the majority won't. They'll see those piles of money on the table and start draining their own accounts or maybe even their parents' credit cards until the bills come in, trying to score. It's exciting, alluring, extreme, which appeals to young people.

Ultimately, I suppose, it's up to the parents and guardians to instill on their youth the true meaning of gambling just as it's up to them to teach them the need for safe driving and freedom from drugs. Likely this won't happen and many of today's underage population will become compulsive gamblers. That's when governments will take a stronger direction. Before that happens, today's gamers‹that's land-based gaming establishments, Internet casinos and television programmers--should do their homework and see if they can find a way to let kids know that gambling is a recreation that costs money.

Surely, had he not made it to the casino floor during his Fear and Loathing days, Hunter Thompson might have substituted the word gambling for music.