Youth Becoming Addicted to Online Gambling

September 11, 2008

According to the Baptist Standard there has been an increase in the number of addicts to online gambling. What is particularly troubling about this report is the fact that the group that is showing an increase in addiction is our youth.

The latest study shows that there are more 14-21 year olds in danger of becoming addicted to online gambling than ever before. They say that it has to do with the options that they are given, and the potential payoffs that they see themselves being eligible for.

Experts say that they are worried about the increasing amounts of our youth that are becoming addicted to online gambling, simply because they know that our youth are more susceptible to the dangers of it � and that eventually they will be functioning adult gambling addicts as well. They say that the steps that the online gambling community has taken are commendable, but they aren�t enough.

The online gambling community is working hard to keep online gambling relegated to the older community by making it more difficult for them to gain access to it. They are now requiring the use of a credit card to gain access to the online gambling sites as they are assuming that anyone under the age of 18 will not have one. They also make them show utility bills or some form of proof of residence � as minors won�t have that either.

However, the recent poll shows that roughly 2.9 million young people are participating in online gambling on a regular basis. The report did not ask about using real money, but they know that those that are gambling for free, when they are able to they will gamble with real money and it will be worse for them as they won�t be thinking of it in terms of losing actual cash. This means they will spend more than someone who had only ever played with real money.





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