Futures At Stake: Youth, Gambling, And Society

Introduction: Youth and Gambling: Creating a Legacy of Risk

Introduction Youth and Gambling Creating a Legacy of Risk Howard J. Shaffer, Matthew N. Hall, Joni Vander Bilt, and Lisa Vagge Each child is an adventure into a better life—an opportunity to change the old pattern and make it new. Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978), former vice-president of the United States1 “Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.” James Baldwin (1924–1987), U.S. author2 Background Futures at Stake: Youth, Gambling, and Society represents only one of the many products of a think tank held at Harvard Medical School on April 3 and 4, 1995. The think tank was a watershed event in the history of North American gambling. For the first time a diverse group of professionals gathered to investigate the multiplicity of factors specifically associated with youth gambling. The purpose of this event was to design a blueprint for social policy—an action plan for determining how the gaming industry, health-care providers, the criminal justice system, and institutions of higher learning should respond to youth gambling and gambling’s influence on youth. This book represents an important step toward recognizing the significant impact that gambling has on children. By understanding the response of children to this phenomenon, we can begin to understand the influence of gambling on the fabric of contemporary society.3 We are now in the midst of the third wave of widespread legal gambling in the United States (Rose, 1995). During the past two decades the opportunity to gamble has exploded across America. Between 1974 and 1995, the total amount of money legally wagered annually in the United States increased from $17.3 billion to $550 billion (Christiansen, 1996; National Council on Problem Gambling, 1993). Between 1975 and 1985, annual national per capita sales of lottery products alone increased from $20 to $97 per year (Clotfelter & Cook, 1989). By the end of 1995, annual national per capita lottery sales had surpassed $130 per year (North American Gaming Report, 1996; U.S. Census Bureau, 1996). The majority of state legislators and governors have decided that gambling provides an economic solution to diminished revenue streams. For example, when U.S. Senator David Durenberger (R-Minn.) chaired the October 3, 1984, hearing on the legalization of state lotteries before the Senate Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations of the Committee on Governmental Affairs during the 98th Congress, he opened the meeting by noting: For large segments of the American public, gambling—whether promoted openly by the State or conducted outside the law—is, and has always been, a moral question. That’s why it’s against the law in most States—against the law, unless the lawmaking body of that State finds itself pressed for funds. The recent advent of government-supported lotteries thus raises the question of whether it is appropriate for States now to promote an activity which for most of our history the States punished as a vice. . . . Whether it is a tax or not, we can agree that it raises revenue. It’s for a good cause. States are, in some sense, like public charities that have been allowed to use raffles to raise money because the money goes for a good cause. So we are asked to ignore our discomfort over the means, and to focus on the ends. (Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations of the Committee on Governmental Affairs, 1985, pp. 1–2) There are few parents who would accept for their children the value system endorsed by an “ends justify the means” strategy. Yet when Senator Durenberger opened the 1984 Senate hearing on state lotteries, no one objected to this characterization of state economics. Since these 1984 hearings on state lotteries, most states no longer find gambling illicit or immoral. As this book goes to press, thirty-seven states and the District of Columbia have legalized lotteries and thirty states have endorsed the presence of land- or water-based casino gambling (International Game Technology, 1995). All states, with the exception of Utah and Hawaii, have legalized some form of gambling. Eadington has noted, “what is presently occurring to legal commercial gaming activities in America can only be described as a veritable avalanche of proliferation” (Eadington, 1992, p. 1). The increase in gambling opportunities for adults, along with the advertising and other hyperbole associated with gambling promotions, has not bypassed children. From church bingo to state-sponsored lotteries, America is 2 howard j. shaffer [3.144...