Pa. counselors see more young people developing gambling habits earlier, through a range of platforms

Legalized gambling in Pennsylvania is limited to people 21 and older.

Jon Wasp knows many young people in the state are starting much earlier than that.

“One in 10 kids, on average, would meet the criteria for problem gambling, problem gaming,” said Wasp, project director at NextGen Counseling in Dickson City.

The practice is open to youths ages 12-19, and Wasp says he’s increasingly encountering young people who have been drawn into the world of gambling.

Recent research from the 2023 PA Youth Survey of sixth, eighth, 10th and 12th grade students estimates that over 20% of students in Pennsylvania have gambled at some point in their lives.

Wasp cited a statistic from the Council on Compulsive Gambling of Pennsylvania (CCGP): The age of onset for gambling is typically 8 years old.

“The first time somebody is given a scratch off lottery ticket, you know, is probably around that age, right? So, introduction to gambling happens early,” Wasp said.

The initiation doesn’t have to be high-tech.

“If you have access to cards and dice, you have access to implements of gambling,” he added.

But it’s not cards and dice and lottery tickets that are making headlines.

A generation of young people steeped in digital technology is increasingly using that technology to place bets — often illicitly, though Wasp also sees the addiction starting with a platform that’s entirely legal and seemingly harmless: Video games.

Many young people are exposed to games that entice users to purchase virtual items designed to enhance their playing experience.

“Loot boxes are things that kids can buy with real money, with a chance of getting something of greater value to them. Now that greater value for kids is determined by something that’s a virtual world, but it’s something of value,” Wasp said. “Kids are playing games that have loot boxes in them very early, and they’re regularly being reinforced.”

“You know, when you think about what happens when you do an in-app purchase, there’s lots of activity that’s on your screen, bright colors, flashes, lots of things that pleasure us, they reward us, right? So we see that, and we want to replicate that behavior again,” he said. “If it costs us a buck-50 to do it, we’ll keep doing it. And that’s what we see.”

Pa. campaigns put youth gambling in spotlight

State officials also recognize that gambling is becoming a problem among young people.

The Pennsylvania departments of Drug and Alcohol Programs and Education this month launched a page of free online resources for educators and families “to learn what problem gambling is, how to recognize warning signs in children and where to go for help.”

That was followed by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board’s debut of the “What’s Really at Stake” Campaign to “heighten the awareness of this problematic issue.”

That launch coincides with both national Problem Gambling Awareness Month in March and the start of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship, “one of the most significant wagering events in the United States,” a release from the Gaming Control Board noted.

Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board research highlighted a number of statistics underscoring the growth of gambling among young people:

● 75% of U.S. college students gambled in the past year.
● 18% of them gambled weekly or more frequently.
● 6% of college students meet criteria for a serious gambling problem.
● 58% of 18–22-year-olds engaged in sports betting.
● 6% of them reported losing over $500 in a single day.
● 33.7% of youth under 18 gambled in a year period.

Josh Ercole, CCGP executive director, said the number of younger people seeking help through the agency’s 1-800-GAMBLER helpline is rising.

“The major group that we’re seeing is between the 25 and 34 group — the highest numbers would typically be, before that, in the 45-ish range. So so the calls have skewed significantly lower,” he said.

“But I think what’s really compelling is when we look at the numbers, while that is the highest call volume, where we’ve seen the greatest amount of growth in is the 18 to 24 range,” Ercole said.

How are people under 21 even participating?

Legalized gambling platforms in Pennsylvania are only open to people 21 and older, which raises the question: How and why are so many underage residents betting — and becoming addicted?

Kristina Bruzzano

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Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board

Gaming Control Board Executive Director Kevin O’Toole said in a release issued by the agency that unlicensed entities are a factor.

“The licensed operators in Pennsylvania have various tools within their systems to deny gambling privileges to those underage, but the proliferation of easily accessible illegal and unregulated sites that do not carry those protections to block underagers is a substantial reason in creating this negative situation,” O’Toole said.

The “What’s Really at Stake” page warns potential underage gamblers of consequences ranging from illegal sites refusing payouts to arrests and fines. It also gives warning signs that a site is unregulated:

● Under-21 registration or play is possible.
● Pennsylvania licensing information is missing or unclear.
● Missing responsible play tools.
● No reference to Pennsylvania regulation.

Ercole agreed that “the greater availability of online gambling from unregulated, offshore entities” is a factor in the rise of young Pennsylvanians developing gambling addiction.

“When you see some of these unregulated types of games, like prediction markets and some of the things that are out there, the legal age to bet on or to play those games or to trade or participate in those activities is only 18 in most cases,” Ercole said.

“It’s not like what you would find going on to an online casino or betting on sports online at a legislated or regulated site, where the age requirement would be 21, so right off the bat, we’ve got younger folks that are able to access the activities,” Ercole said.

“But not only that, it’s also very social,” he added.

“That usually is something that happens where a group of friends are all placing a wager, or they’re all active, doing different types of wagering, and they’re having fun with it,” Ercole said.

“But every once in a while, that’s what we’re going to see is maybe one of those friends starts to take things a little bit further, and that’s where we sometimes see problems develop,” he said.

“Say somebody starts out with sports wagering. A lot of the sites also have access to online casinos. It’s very easy for someone who’s already in that in that site and on that platform, to seamlessly transition over to one of those other types of games,” Ercole said.

Grooming for gambling?

Roy Gilgallon, CEO of Scranton-based addiction treatment center Turning Point Alternative Living Solutions, said he sees parallels between how young people are exposed to sports predictions today and how tobacco companies once marketed to youths.

“There were a lot of commercials with cigarettes,” Gilgallon said, recalling The Marlboro Man with his cowboy hat and the cartoon character Joe Camel.

“They were grooming pre-adolescents and adolescents to be smokers,” he said.

That’s what he believes is happening today with young people and gambling.

Gilgallon pointed to children’s network Nickelodeon’s partnership with the National Football League, including its “NFL Slimetime” show, a weekly program featuring pro football highlights, celebrity picks and predictions aimed at young viewers. Its game broadcasts — designed to bring the colorful, kid-friendly “Nickelodeon vibe” to football coverage, have been promoted by sites like betus.com.

In the early 2020s Nickelodeon and CBS parent Paramount promoted the NFLNickPlay.com site as “the official online destination for NFL Slimetime and the NFL Wild Card Game on Nickelodeon, helping to educate kids on football basics and entertain them with a variety of NFL-themed content.”

In 2020 the website Legal Sports Report (LSR) wrote that the site “appears to expose kids to sports betting-like products and prediction games,” including “sports betting terminology, feel.”

“We have worked (and will continue to) with CBS/Viacom on the elements in and around this game and there is nothing gambling-related or intended,” Alex Riethmiller, VP of communications for NFL Media, replied in a statement published by LSR.

That aspect of the partnership appears to have been discontinued. Clicking on the https://www.nflnickplay.com site currently directs to the main www.nick.com site, with no evidence of any NFL-themed content.

The NFL Slimetime videos and broadcasts continue.

‘You can gamble in video games’

Jason Harlen, CEO for Wyoming Valley Alcohol and Drug Services, sees many of the same digital precursors to addiction Ercole, Wasp and Gilgallon described.

“You can gamble in video games,” Harlen said. “We know Fortnite, all those video games that are out there right now, the real big [thing] is you can gamble [on] getting skins.”

As this Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) story explains, skins change the way a player’s character looks in the video game. While some free skins come with the game, special ones are available for real money — ranging from a few dollars to $100 or more.

The hunt for skins is one form of loot boxes, as Wasp described above.

“You don’t know what you’re getting. You’re wagering something to get something. So that is a big, big target for kids that are very young,” Harlen said.

But is it gambling?

New York State Attorney General Letitia James thinks so. Last month she sued video game developer Valve, Reuters reported, arguing that its loot boxes amounted to “quintessential gambling.”

“Valve’s loot boxes are particularly pernicious because they are popular among children and adolescents,” James’ complaint argued.

Valve, whose games include Counter-Strike, Dota and Team Fortress, released a statement on its Steam gaming website disputing James’ claims.

“Players don’t have to open mystery boxes to play Valve games. In fact, most of you don’t open any boxes at all and just play the games — because the items in the boxes are purely cosmetic, there is no disadvantage to a player not spending money,” the company wrote.

“Valve does not cooperate with gambling sites. To date we’ve locked over 1 million Steam accounts that were being misused by third parties in connection with gambling, fraud and theft,” the company added.

As Reuters pointed out, New York State isn’t the first government entity to raise concerns about loot boxes.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission last year reached a $20 million settlement with Singapore-based Cognosphere, maker of the Genshin Impact game, over allegations that the company deceived players, especially children, “about the real costs of in-game transactions and odds of obtaining rare prizes.”

The BBC, meanwhile, reported last week that games which feature loot boxes will soon be given an age rating of 16 across Europe to help caution parents about potential harms to their children.

Intervention ‘starts with open, honest communication’

Wasp said the loot boxes only add to the complicated relationship many children and teens have with money.

“I think, in general, parents try to not make money a kid’s problem, right? You know, as a parent of teens myself, I know our focus is on getting them to recognize the value of money,” he said. But “kids, by their nature, tend to have access to unrestricted unscheduled cash,” and that creates problems.

“An allowance of 10 bucks a week is money,” he said. “And kids don’t have real responsibilities for those funds, so their ability to use them in an unrestricted way is greater.”

“And then when you get to older kids, teens, in particular, they have jobs, part time jobs. They’re generating money — money that is bettable, money that they can use to place wagers,” Wasp said.

There is another loophole he cautioned parents about. Wasp said some games have parental controls that can be set up to allow for in-app purchases.

If the games are connected to parents’ financial accounts, “what we end up seeing is kids have access to not only their own resources, but to their parents’ resources,” Wasp said.

Addressing and preventing problems “starts with open, honest communication,” Wasp said.

“It’s important to normalize the conversation. It gives us an opportunity to have intervention there,” Wasp said.

“It’s having conversations with other parents about what you’re seeing with your kids, you know, use of gaming or their cell phones, and recognizing that some kids use these devices more than others do,” he said.

Wasp also acknowledges that parents can be afraid of technology they didn’t grow up with.

“I’ll be the first person to admit Tiktok can be foreign to me, right? But, but when it comes right down to it, I think having an open conversation, even with your kids, about what they’re doing on their devices, how they’re using them,” he said. “It should be more an opportunity for communication and not confiscation, if that makes sense.”

Harlen agreed that having an open conversation helps raise awareness.

While his agency treats people who are 18 and over for gambling addiction, its team also works to raise awareness of the issue with younger people.

“We go into the various schools, preschool all the way up to college, and we teach, you know, kids about the danger [of] problem gambling,” Harlen said.

And, he said, it’s important to remember that gambling takes many forms and people are often introduced at very young ages.

“I can remember when I was a kid, you know, going to the church bazaar, opening up those bingo tickets, you know, playing the Big Six wheel at 10 years old,” Harlen said.

“I was introduced very early,” he said. “I am not a problem gambler. But have I gambled? Absolutely.”