Gambling gifts could put youths at risk for addiction
Experts are warning parents this Christmas not to roll the dice on addiction and keep those lottery tickets or electronic games of chance off the gift list.
Josh Ercole, executive director of the Council on Compulsive Gambling of Pennsylvania, said youths are spending thousands of dollars on video game items, purchases that often come with elements of chance. Those elements, he said, can lead to chemical reactions in the brain that can lead to a gambling addiction.
“They can purchase games within the games that have an element of chance to them,” Ercole said. “Even when there is no substance or smoke, with gambling, it’s dopamine that reacts to that activity.”
The council is teaming up local agencies on the Gift Responsibly Campaign advising family and friends against gifting lottery-related presents to children for the holidays.
The campaign spreads the awareness of the risks associated with giving children chance-based products like lottery or scratch-off tickets. According to the Butler County Prevention Team, research supports that early exposure to or participation in gambling during childhood is highly correlated with the development of a gambling problem later in life.
“Gambling causes the same things to happen in the brain as drugs and alcohol,” said Lisa Gill, prevention program specialist at Butler County Human Services Drug and Alcohol Program. “It’s not the win that makes you feel that, it's the anticipation of winning that starts to release all those fell-good chemicals in the brain.”
Gill said the feelings associated with gambling and luck-based games are similar to the feelings that come from substance use. Not just youths, but everyone can experience the rush of dopamine that comes from rolling the dice for the chance of reward.
Pennsylvania legalized online gambling in 2017, which Ercole said changed the landscape in the state when it came to chance-based games. The ability to legally participate in online and sports gambling led to an increase in the number of calls his office receives, and people have reported struggling to pay bills or even losing family members over the money they spent on gambling.
Ercole said gambling can become an issue as soon as it begins to have a negative impact on a person’s life. He said gambling can be a particularly difficult vice to kick because opportunities for it are so readily available, and a person can get out of control quickly.
“If they don’t recognize it at some point, it’s going to compound,” Ercole said. “There can be that increased tolerance to risk more or do more to satisfy the risks that they're doing.
“There’s nothing wrong with playing these games, it’s the risk associated with them.”
Gill said she has found that children already recognize the prominence of gambling, because they are familiar with the games that are luck and chance-based.
“Adults said they don’t think gambling is a problem but the students say ‘yeah,’” Gill said. “Whether it’s fantasy football or a video game, those count as gambling.”
Ercole encourages parents and family members to be mindful of the gifts they give to children, because either result of a lottery ticket could leave a negative impact.
“An early win would increase the probability of developing the problem,” Gill said, because a youth could feel compelled to chase that feeling. A loss could have the same effect, with a child wanting to rectify the experience of losing, he said.
Gill and Ercole each said parents should be aware of the video games their children are playing, and if those games involve gambling, whether real money is at stake or not.
“Be a parent, not a friend,” Gill said. “The Butler County Prevention Team regularly provides prevention programming for alcohol, tobacco, other drugs and problem gambling so this was a natural fit for us to help get the information out.”
Ercole said people can call the gambling hotline to report problem gambling at 1-800-gambler, also known as 1-800-426-2537.
