Futures At Stake: Youth, Gambling, And Society

12 Adolescent Gambling Research:The Next Wave

Chapter Twelve Adolescent Gambling Research The Next Wave Henry R. Lesieur Introduction Research on teen gambling is still in its infancy. Nevertheless, a body of knowledge is emerging, with its base in the United States and the United Kingdom. This chapter reviews that literature, examines the data lacunae existing in the field, and makes suggestions for the direction of future research. Surveys of teen gambling (including rates of gambling, expenditure, and gambling problems) are discussed in light of allegations of epidemic teen gambling, as well as teen betting-ring hysteria. Some researchers have investigated gambling among teens in the gambling setting itself, but these studies have been limited to the United Kingdom. This chapter emphasizes studies of problem gambling, the range of gambling problems, definitional issues, and related problems; it reviews research on prevention and treatment of problem gambling among teens and outlines areas of needed research as well as a more inclusive multifactorial model of inquiry. Prevalence of Adolescent Gambling Beginning with an Atlantic City study where researchers found that 64 percent of the high school students surveyed had gambled in the casinos (Arcuri, Lester, & Smith, 1985), interest in teen gambling has mushroomed in the United States and elsewhere. Following that research, Lesieur and Klein (1987) examined four New Jersey high schools and learned that 86 percent of the students had gambled in the past year and 91 percent had participated in various forms of gambling during their lifetime. More recently, researchers have uncovered high rates of teen gambling in other parts of the United States, including Washington (Volberg, 1993), Minnesota (Winters, Stinchfield, & Kim, 1995), and Massachusetts (Shaffer, LaBrie, Scanlan, & Cummings, 1994). Perhaps the most extensive studies come from the United Kingdom , where approximately two-thirds of young teens have played “fruit machines” (the term used in the United Kingdom for slot machines), with 15 percent to 21 percent playing at least once a week (Evans, 1989; Fisher, 1993b, 1995; Ide-Smith & Lea, 1988; Waterman & Atkin, 1985). Fisher (1993b) found that gambling was nearly universal (a 99 percent prevalence rate) among 11- to 16-year-olds. The data on rates of teen gambling are summarized in table 12.1. These studies reveal that rates of weekly gambling range from 9 percent to 38 percent, with most between 14 percent and 24 percent, while the typical lifetime gambling rate hovered around 75 percent to 85 percent. Who are the teen gamblers? Of all the variables examined, gender is the most salient. Every study reviewed agrees that males are more likely to gamble (Griffiths, 1989; Wallisch, 1993) and/or gamble more frequently (Fisher, 1993b) than females. This disparity is more evident during the teen years than adulthood, where the ratio for past-year gambling in 1992 was seven male gamblers to five females (Hugick & Saad, 1994). Gambling Expenditures Children gamble. How much they spend gambling is another matter. Reported figures fluctuate widely. Wallisch (1993) reports adolescent gamblers spending approximately $23 a year on average (calculated from grouped data), Winters and Stinch- field (1993) counted $28 a year in 1990 and $32 in 1991/92, while Volberg (1993) reports adolescents gambling $10 a month. What explains this disparity? Quite simply, expenditure disparities exist because different researchers frame the issue differently. Both Wallisch (1993) and Winters and Stinchfield (1993) asked the same global questions about the total amount bet in a year. Wallisch (1993) stated: Adolescents who had gambled at all during the past year were asked, “If you think about all the times you have bet money in the past 12 months, how much total money would you estimate you have bet during that time?” They were asked to respond using the following dollar categories: $0, $1–9, $10–19, $20–49, $50–99, $100–199, and $200 or more. (p. 15) Volberg (1993) asked subjects how much money they spent in a typical month for each form of gambling, for example, lottery or card games. Volberg’s $10 per month was obtained by totaling the typical monthly expenditures. Males spent more per month ($13) than females ($7). While requesting dollar amounts for specific types of gambling is more specific than asking the question globally, assessing expenditure is tricky business. Expenditure can be estimated three ways: the amount of money put at risk, the net cost to the player, or the total volume of money gambled with, including money won and Adolescent Gambling Research 229 Table 12.1 Studies...