As Teens Are Targeted by Online Gambling, What’s the Role of Loneliness and Schools?

When the school year began in Virginia this fall, teenagers entering public high schools have something new on their curriculum: instruction on how to better understand and avoid the risks of gambling. Funded by the state’s very own gambling industry, the lessons aim to educate students on luck and chance, the risks of addiction, the nature of online betting and other messages.

These education measures come into effect seven years after the Supreme Court lifted restrictions on gambling within states. Since the court’s Murphy decision, 38 states now permit wagering in various forms, much of it online. And while most states require players to be at least 21, many younger people have found a way in. According to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, 60-80% of teenagers report having gambled at least once over the past year by the time they reach high school. Problem gambling can start as young as 10, and 4-8% of young people struggle with it, versus just 1% of adults. Teenage gambling is also associated with use of illegal drugs, and gambling addiction is more apt to lead to suicide than addiction to drugs or alcohol.

What’s startling about Virginia’s initiative was its original resistance to addressing problem gambling in any context. Along with eight other states, Virginia initially had earmarked scant funding for research or support services for problem gamblers. But just two years after the state authorized online sports gambling, citizens began to stew over the fusillade of ads for DraftKings, FanDuel and BetMGM, especially as word spread about tax advantages the industry had secured. Parents called to share stories of young people swept up in wagering. Sam Rasoul, a delegate from the state’s 38^th district, introduced legislation that promptly passed in 2022. “The political appetite was right,” said Brianne Doura-Schawohl, a public health advocate who helped craft the legislation.

Anne Rogers oversaw the creation of the educational materials. The head of gambling prevention efforts throughout the state, Rogers worked with Virginia’s 40 community service boards to find effective lessons that would educate teenagers without teaching them how to gamble or entice them to give it a try. They settled on two primary materials: the Stacked Deck curriculum and “Who Really Wins?,” a gambling prevention program designed in Croatia. Teachers suggested that school schedules wouldn’t allow for the recommended 7 to 8 sessions, so Rogers condensed the material into a single 90-minute lesson, some of it interactive, that could be divided up further as needed. The state also offers a free web-based system on gambling that is available to anyone.

The 90 minutes cover several subjects: understanding gaming, gambling and the laws around them; brain development; media literacy; the impact on physical and emotional health; signs of problem gambling; financial literacy; and how to keep from developing a problem.

“We avoided discussion of myths vs facts,” Rogers explained, because research shows that students remember myths and confuse them with facts. Pulling from the failures of the anti-drug D.A.R.E. Program, the gambling materials tell kids what gambling is without showing them how to do it.

“We’re not teaching them how to gamble,” Rogers said. Small tests between sections indicate whether kids understand what they’ve been taught.

What are the prospects of more states picking this up?

“There’s a lot of interest in states wanting to replicate what Virginia is doing,” Rogers said; Massachusetts and New Jersey are considering legislation now. At the same time, the lack of federal leadership impedes state efforts, because there’s no national plan to address problem gambling that states can simply adopt. Governments also can be slow to react to threats that don’t seem to pose imminent dangers.

“The school systems haven’t caught up with the health system, and the health system hasn’t caught up with the trends in the gambling industry,” Doura-Schawohl explained, noting that it took about 30 years to get action on the health risks associated with tobacco, alcohol and opioids. The fact that states receive revenue from legalized gambling also dampens enthusiasm for tough regulation; gambling proceeds provide a fresh source of state funds.

Not everyone who studies gambling addiction believes that mandatory, school-based lessons focusing on prohibition are the best approach to preventing problem gambling. Timothy Fong, a psychiatrist and co-director of UCLA’s Gambling Studies Program, and who is passionate about studying all-things-gambling, told me that “addiction and loneliness feed off each other.”

The young people who get swept up into addictive behaviors are looking for quick ways to obtain financial and social success; they can’t resist the promise of “easy” money coming to them from their own devices. “They think, ‘I need money fast in order to feel good about myself”,” Fong said. “What’s missing in their lives is developing kindness, empathy, gratitude, compassion and strengthening civics and pride in themselves and their communities.”

Of course, young people need a grounding in financial literary and probability, but it would be more effective to address false expectations and fantasies about striking it rich through betting, he added. Kids need connection with other humans more than immersion in anti-gambling curriculum, especially adult mentors who can counteract the messaging of social media and misinformation.

“There is no magic bullet,” Rogers said, acknowledging that tackling the problem will require more than one 90-minute session on the perils of gambling. Kids need tools on how to succeed and better ways of minimizing stress. “This is just one piece,” she added.

Jonathan Cohen, author of Losing Big: America’s Reckless Bet On Spots Gambling, told me that school principals have begun calling him, asking for guidance on how to handle their emerging problems, like middle school kids talking openly about gambling and bragging about their wins. Cohen believes parents and schools need to talk to kids about gambling, at the very least to challenge the dominant narrative propagated by social media influencers and celebrities on TV: that wagering is glamorous and fun and no harm can come from it.

For her part, Doura-Schawohl is troubled by the pace of reform. “A lot of kids are going to die while policy makers wait around and figure out if we should do something, and what they should do,” she said. “And that’s a terrifying fact.”