Twain Tween Teen Gambling & Gaming

“Problem Gambling is on the Rise Among Young Men” who spend more time online as gambling-like elements in videogames increase while more states legalize sports betting. Try monkey see monkey do foolishness too.

So, what’d the WSJ expect in its article supposedly exposing what obviously would happen as more and more gambling was not only glorified online but legalized as well as relied upon to increase governmental coffers? Was it so hard for the quoted “counselors, therapists & addiction experts” to see in advance that “teen boys” would be especially susceptible to the old man’s fools’ gold approach to navigating through life?

“’There’s been a big surge of younger & younger people’ in gambling support and recovery programs,” confirmed Marc Lefkowitz, chair of the recovery committee for the National Council on Problem Gambling. According to one addiction-group moderator, “there were so many young men at a recent meeting that the parking lot looked like a fraternity gathering.” It could have been a prom preparation meeting, too, considering that the “number of 11th and 12th grade males experiencing gambling problems, such as lying about how much they lost or being unable to control their gambling, rose to 8.3% in 2022 from 4.2% in 2018,” at least, according to one survey of 7,500 7th thru 12th graders in an Ohio county. The experts opined the “line between gambling and videogaming is blurring.” So maybe is the line between violence and videogaming? But, hey, those connect the obvious dots articles appeared years ago …

Davd Soul