Oct 7, 2024 | RESEARCH, YOUTH GAMBLING
By Kira Landauer, MPH
Read the original article on the BASIS HERE.
Worldwide, many young people gamble before they reach legal gambling age, with a portion experiencing gambling-related problems. To reduce the potential for harm, we need to understand the factors that shape adolescents’ gambling attitudes and behaviors as they grow up. This week, The WAGER reviews a study by Nerilee Hing and colleagues that examined the gambling trajectories of Australian adolescents at different levels of gambling risk, and what influenced these trajectories during various stages of development.
What were the research questions?
What are the gambling trajectories of Australian adolescents at different levels of gambling risk? What influences these trajectories during different developmental stages?
What did the researchers do?
The researchers recruited 89 adolescents from New South Wales, Australia in 2022. They participated in interviews and online discussion communities, where they recounted their gambling experiences chronologically from childhood to present time. Participants were grouped by level of gambling risk based on a validated screen for gambling-related problems: (1) non-gambler (NG), (2) non-problem gambler (NPG), and (3) at-risk gambling or problems with gambling (ARPG). The authors performed thematic analyses to explore the gambling trajectories and their influences for each group during three developmental stages: (1) childhood, (2) early adolescence, and (3) later adolescence.
What did they find?
Childhood
Many participants were first exposed to gambling in childhood (see Figure). Most ARPGs and NPGs were introduced to gambling through their parents, and sometimes passively included in gambling (e.g., gifted scratch tickets). ARPGs, in particular, had positive memories of gambling and remembered it being a fun family activity. Parental gambling was less common for NGs, who became aware of gambling through other sources such as ads.
Early Adolescence
Participants became more aware of gambling options and opportunities during early adolescence through friends, family, ads, and mass media. NGs refrained from gambling, typically because of age restrictions or parental disapproval. Conversely, many ARPGs and NPGs began participating in gambling activities—usually betting privately with friends. Many participants became interested in sports-related betting during this time.
Later Adolescence
The gambling trajectories further diverged in later adolescence. NGs continued to refrain from gambling, and NPGs’ gambling involvement remained consistent or declined. However, ARPGs began to participate in an even wider array of gambling activities, including some high-risk activities like sports betting and skin gambling. They saw gambling as a way to bond with peers—friends often taught and encouraged gambling. Some ARPGs viewed gambling as a way to make money or to demonstrate their skill, unlike most NGs and NPGs.
Figure. Sources influencing the gambling trajectories of Australian adolescents (n = 89) at different levels of gambling risk and during different developmental stages: (1) childhood, (2) early adolescence, and (3) later adolescence. Themes pertaining to a specific risk level are indicated as such. Adapted from Hing et al. 2024.
Why do these findings matter?
Young people’s gambling behaviors evolve as they grow up. This evolution is shaped by multiple interacting sources of influence, including parents, friends, advertisements, and sports. Youth gambling prevention should focus on specific sources of influence at different developmental stages. Educational initiatives, like the Gift Responsibly Campaign, should inform parents of the potential risks of involving their children in gambling activities (e.g., via scratch tickets). Adolescents may also benefit from initiatives that focus on the development of social skills, like resisting peer pressure to gamble.
Every study has limitations. What are the limitations of this study?
Findings from this study might not be generalizable to adolescents in other Australian states or countries, where the gambling landscape and norms are different. This study relied on self-reported data, which may be subject to recall bias.
Sep 6, 2024 | RESEARCH
By Annette Siu
Read the original article on the BASIS here.
Gambling is an increasing public health concern for adolescents. Even though most countries do not allow those under the age of 18 to gamble, adolescents are regularly exposed to gambling through various media outlets. Many recent gambling advertisements posted on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok feature celebrities and social media influencers, which may particularly appeal to younger audiences. This week, The WAGER reviews a study by Hannah Pitt and colleagues that examined youth perceptions of celebrities and social media influencers in Australian gambling advertisements.
What were the research questions?
(1) How do young people perceive the use of celebrities and social media influencers in gambling advertisements?, and (2) How do these types of advertisements influence gambling attitudes among young people?
What did the researchers do?
The researchers recruited 64 adolescents aged 12 – 17 years from Victoria and New South Wales (NSW) in Australia during November 2021 – September 2022. They conducted 22 online focus groups with 2 to 4 participants in each group. Participants were asked about their views of celebrities in gambling ads and the influence of these ads on young people. Participants gave their recommendations for restricting the use of celebrities and influencers in gambling promotions. The authors then used thematic analysis to identify key themes from the focus groups.
What did they find?
Four key themes emerged. First, celebrities and influencers increase the appeal of gambling advertisements (see Figure). Participants suggested that advertisements featuring celebrities and influencers were more attention-grabbing and memorable because they provided a sense of familiarity. The second theme was that celebrities and influencers increase the social acceptance of gambling. The use of celebrities in advertisements made it seem more acceptable to gamble and added credibility to the gambling company they were promoting. Many young people look up to and idolize celebrities, and participants were concerned that these types of ads might encourage young people to gamble. The third theme was that celebrities reduce the perceived risks associated with gambling. Participants commented that there were few ads in which celebrities emphasized the risks of gambling, which could contribute to gambling misconceptions among youth. The fourth theme was about reducing the impact of celebrity and influencer gambling advertisements on young people. Participants recommended that celebrities get more involved in educational gambling campaigns, and some even suggested completely restricting celebrities from promotional gambling advertisements to limit early exposure to gambling.
Figure. An overview of the four key themes that the researchers identified and relevant quotes from online focus group participants (n = 64).
Why do these findings matter?
The adolescents in this study voiced that the use of celebrities and influencers in gambling advertisements exposes young audiences to gambling, increases trust in gambling brands, and reduces perceived risks associated with gambling. These findings suggest that regulatory efforts—which have already been enacted in the United Kingdom, for example—are needed to protect youth from being influenced by gambling marketing. These regulatory requirements could include monitoring all types of gambling marketing, restricting gambling accessibility (e.g., with strict age verification processes), and creating more public education campaigns (e.g., similar to the National Council on Problem Gambling’s Safer Sports Betting Initiative).
Every study has limitations. What are the limitations in this study?
This study was conducted in two states in Australia, so the findings might not be generalizable to other countries with different gambling regulations and environments. Additionally, most participants were male, so they might have different perceptions and are typically more exposed to gambling compared to females.
Aug 7, 2024 | RECOVERY, STORIES
My gambling addiction has driven me to do things I never thought I’d do: write bad checks, max out credit cards and make up stories about why I needed to borrow money from my family. But most upsetting to me was that my addiction caused me to steal from my parents’ retirement accounts.
That’s really the point at which I knew I needed to get help.
It wasn’t always that way. The first time I gambled was when I went to a casino when I was 18. I’d go a few times a year with friends and family. It was a fun thing that we did together and I never had an issue.
Then, when I was in my late 20s, I started going to the casinos by myself as a way of dealing with my feeling embarrassed about being without a significant other when all my siblings were getting married and having kids. It allowed me to tell everyone I had something to do so they wouldn’t feel sorry for me. They didn’t know I was alone.
I began going every weekend and not just to spend three or four hours. I’d sometimes spend the whole night. Then I started going during the week, and would often change clothes in the car on my way to work from the casino.
My money started to run out, and that’s when I began to max out my credit cards and write bad checks. I learned about ways to get money in which to gamble, including payday loans.
I knew I had to get away from gambling because I’d end up in jail for writing bad checks. I prayed that death would take me away and felt like I was such a loser.
I thought a change of scenery would help me so I moved to Montana to be with my sister. At first, I didn’t gamble, partly because I didn’t have a job. Then I started working and making money and began to venture out from my sister. I learned that bars, restaurants and gas stations had casinos, including Keno, which I had never played before. I started doing that more and more on my way home from work.
I decided to end my time in Montana, partly concerned that my sister would learn what I was doing with my time and money because it was a small town. I called my old boss in back in Minnesota and lucked into a job.
But I wasn’t back in Minnesota for more than a week before I was back at the casinos. I had worked to clean up my debts but now I was going right back into it.
About six months later, I did what I could never have imagined doing. I waited for my parents to leave the driveway as they were heading out of town. I went into my mother’s bedroom and opened up the checkbook for their investment account. I wrote a check out to myself. My handwriting was very similar to my mother’s.
Aug 7, 2024 | ADVOCACY
Looking to increase the visibility of gambling addiction in the eyes of the state? If so, Minnesota’s Compulsive Gambling Advisory Committee, which meets virtually every other month, wants you.
The committee consists of 14 positions, five of which are providers. The remaining positions are reserved for those who have an interest in prevention and increasing awareness of gambling disorder. This includes those with lived recovery experience and people from community agencies who work with populations vulnerable to gambling addiction. Beyond the 14 positions, anyone from the general public is welcome to be present.
“Our biggest challenge is getting more voices to the committee meetings,” says Craig Johnson, LADC, director of the Gambling Treatment Program at Club Recovery and chair of the committee. “We’re working to revitalize previous connections, including those with the Minnesota Lottery and Minnesota Department of Corrections. We want to bring together a wide variety of voices that can speak to the gambling treatment and awareness needs of the community.”
The committee’s charter, recently updated by Minnesota’s Department of Human Services (DHS) for the first time since 2013, is to provide expertise to DHS on the nature of community needs related to treatment, prevention and awareness. The committee also weighs in on legislative efforts and was quite involved with recent sports gambling legislation. [The legislation didn’t pass but will be revisited next year].
Another goal of the committee is to raise gambling disorder to a more equal footing with substance use disorder within the state’s structure. “We only have 19 gambling treatment providers whereas there are approximately 2,500 LADCs in the state who help those with alcohol and substance use disorder,” says Craig. “We need to have greater numbers of gambling providers to ensure we can adequately assess and treat those with gambling disorder.”
Craig is encouraged by the increased structure put forward by DHS to manage the state’s gambling program. He notes there are now five people from the state dedicated to working with the committee, providing more consistency and continuity to address addiction treatment in Minnesota.
Committee meetings are open to anyone who’s interested. However, only official committee members can vote.
If you or someone you know is interested in participating in committee meetings, please email Craig Johnson at Cjohnson@clubrecoveryllc.com for the Zoom link and related information.
Aug 7, 2024 | ABOUT MNAPG, ADVOCACY
Sonja Mertz, community educator, periodically reports on MNAPG outreach efforts. Here’s her latest account.
Sonja Mertz, Community Educator
Part of my role as community educator includes providing presentations at professional conferences. Audiences at these events include mental health and substance use professionals, educators, administrators and other people who are familiar with, or who have heard of, problem gambling and gambling addiction. At the end of each presentation, I offer time for comments or questions. It’s common for this request to be met with blank stares. Occasionally, someone will ask a question or provide a comment about the gambling behavior they have seen in their line of work.
This past year, my audiences have expanded to include middle school students, gaming industry staff, recovery center staff, people in the military and clients in outpatient addiction recovery. This increased diversity of the folks listening to my presentations has increased audience participation.
With middle school students, the feedback lands in completely opposite directions. They either stare blankly at me and go completely quiet when I ask if they have any questions or they are fully engaged and gladly offer questions or comments. It was during a presentation in Babbit that an eighth grader informed me that an image that I had been using to talk about loot boxes in video games was incorrect. I made sure to change it as soon as possible!
During my presentation at the Military Mental Health Conference at Camp Ripley, a casino employee challenged my suggestion of using cash as a way to reduce the harm of gambling. She talked about how some of her customers bring in stacks of cash and stay until the stack is wiped out. She also expressed her concern about customers who she knows are spending all of their paychecks at the casino and wanted to know what she, as a casino employee, could do.
It was during my most recent presentation to clients of an outpatient treatment group that I was able to witness the direct impact of the information that I push out to those who will listen. These are people who are living with addictions and are going through the recovery process. They have experienced the trauma, mental health issues and co-occurring disorders that I have so diligently researched. Their stories about when their addictions started, their experience with gambling and their sincere concerns about friends and family who were dealing with gambling addiction have really impacted me.
As sports betting and gambling continue to become normalized and Minnesotans recognize how gambling behavior impacts their communities, the need for reliable information increases. The MNAPG staff is seeing a sharp increase in requests for presentations. I am already scheduled in the next few months to present to older adults at senior centers and social services staff at their annual training. I look forward to receiving more feedback from people in the real world – those who are directly impacted by gambling.
