Sports Related Problem Gambling – Who is at Risk?

Anyone can develop a gambling problem – young, old, male, female, rich or poor. All games of chance are a potential threat to a person at risk for gambling addiction. However, sports gambling is becoming more invasive in today’s society and is reaching younger audiences. The 2010 National Annenberg Survey of Youth showed that sports betting is the most popular form of gambling among youth 14 - 22.

Nearly a quarter of adolescent males bet on sports in an average month. According to the NCAA, 92% of male college athletes reported that they started gambling [on sports or any other gambling] in high school or earlier. Many students are first introduced to wagering on sports by completing an NCAA tournament bracket or buying a Super Bowl square, suggesting these forms of gambling may serve as a gateway to more expensive and dangerous forms of betting, according to a study conducted by Tim Otteman of US News & World Report. The NCAA estimates that 1 in 10 Americans will complete a tournament bracket, and CNBC estimates that $6-12 billion is wagered on March Madness.

While betting on a tournament or football game does not automatically cause a problem or put someone on the path towards addiction, its popularity does create the need for education and encouraging responsible gambling practices.

Much of the recent research shows a higher interest, and thereby higher risk, to males and youth.

According to the International Centre for Youth Gambling Problems and High-Risk Behaviors at McGill University, boys develop more gambling problems than girls because they are more competitive and enjoy feeling important when they win. Also, boys are more susceptible to develop gambling problems than girls because they participate in gambling activities that are more problematic, such as sports betting. They believe that because they know all the teams and the players, they have a good chance of winning their bet. Many teenagers have developed a gambling problem due to their participation in betting on sports events.

Athletes are at a high risk for sports gambling for many reasons including unreasonable expectation of winning, competitive personalities, need for action and excitement, ability to play through pain and perception of social norms. Some other risk factors of problem gambling in general include being an athlete, belief in one’s own skill, racial and ethnic minorities are at a higher risk of developing a gambling addiction, easy access to money, and having a family history of addiction.

National Problem Gambling Awareness Week is an ideal time to raise awareness of problem gambling and responsible gaming. While anyone is at risk, there are specific risk factors to be aware of. Know the risk factors, and know your limits before you place a bet.
Public service message provided by he National Council on Problem Gambling.
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FATHERS OF DEAD SONS URGE NATION TO STAY SAFE
DURING MARCH MADNESS
  “March Madness” Coincides with National Problem Gambling
Awareness Week, March 7-13, 2010 In light of recent events among Washington Wizards pro basketball players, when teammates brandished guns over a gambling dispute, Bill Swanson and Robert McGuigan remind the nation that sports betting can turn deadly. “Before this happened to our sons, we didn’t know that gambling can be addictive,” says Bill Swanson. His son, Dan, was in the wrong place at the wrong time in June 2003 when a 19-year-old snuck into the apartment where Dan was staying and shot and killed him and another guest as they slept. The killer—Meng-Ju “Mark” Wu, a college student who’d lost thousands of dollars to sports bets—waited for his young bookie, Jason McGuigan, to return home. Wu later shot and killed McGuigan, too. In his cell the day before his trial was to begin, Wu committed suicide.

Today, Robert McGuigan, Jason’s father, visits high school and college classrooms to caution teens and young adults that gambling can be addictive. “Problem gambling changes people. It takes them down an unhealthy road,” says McGuigan, cautioning that gambling addiction can progress over time. As a boy, Jason had been gentle and caring. By his late teens, he was obsessed with gambling. Rather than attend college, Jason became a bookmaker and con artist to support his own gambling addiction. Documented in an ESPN special called “Outside the Lines,” the tragedy united Jason and Dan’s fathers against gambling addiction and put the dads in poor humor when the locker room skirmish involving guns erupted among Washington Wizards basketball players. Although the triple homicide that killed their sons is extreme, problem gambling devastates thousands of individuals and families in many other ways in every American state, including states where gambling is prohibited. Internet gambling—generally illegal throughout the U.S.—makes it possible to gamble anywhere. Common symptoms and consequences of gambling addiction include extreme debt, lying, borrowing and/or stealing, agitation when not gambling, stress, aggression, broken relationships, depression, and suicide. “Gambling can be as addictive as any drug,” Bill Swanson cautions. “Everyone in America needs to know.”
National Problem Gambling Awareness Week is March 7-13. For more information, visit www.npgaw.org. For help with a gambling problem, call 1.800.522.4700.
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