Jeffrey Derevensky of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec is part of an international campaign to discourage adults from giving children lottery or scratch tickets as gifts over the holidays or for special occasions.
While the adult’s intentions may be the best, research has shown that one of the signs for a later problem with gambling is an early big win.
Roughly 1% of adults have a serious gambling problem, but for adolescents it’s as high as 4%. Professor Derevensky, a child psychologist and Co-Director of the International Centre for Youth Gambling Problems and High-Risk Behaviors, says gambling among young people is very common, particularly among boys.
Simulated gambling on social media sites
Social media provide a new forum according to Jeff Derevensky. He says, “We’re very concerned about a whole new genre of potentially problematic gambling behavior that is being used now on simulated forms of gambling on social media sites, so you can actually play roulette or blackjack or any casino type games on simulated sites where you as an adult or child can do this for what we call virtual currency, so it doesn’t really have any value per se. We do know from some research that some of these sites actually use inflated payout rates so that if you’re playing blackjack or you’re playing roulette on some of these sites the payout rates are much higher than had you been gambling for real money on an internet gambling site or in reality in a land-based casino.
If as an individual you’re winning all this money, play-money, play-value, virtual currency, the natural inclination is to say ‘gee, had I only been gambling for real money, look how much money I would have won and as a result we’re very concerned about the migration from these play-for-fun sites to real actual on-line gambling.”
The fastest growing industry in the world
Professor Derevensky says the gambling industry “is the fastest growing industry in the world. More and more countries are opening casinos, more and more places are now getting involved in on-line gambling as a way of generating revenues for government.”
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