Gambling Is Wasted On The Youth

READ MORE: Addiction, Gambling, Young People

Here’s a new story about how online poker is degrading youth and ruining college students’ credit for life. (Sallie Mae is not a fan of online poker,we’re almost positive.) Yet, this piece seems to have a misleading title with “Pathological gambling among the young is exaggerated, experts say”, however, due to the fact that it seems most of the experts actually do believe there is a legitimate problem with online gambling and youth. Observe:

· “According to the Annenberg Public Policy Center, the 2003-04 period saw an 84 percent growth in weekly poker play among male high school and college students and half of all college students gamble at least once a month.”

· “Arnie Wexler, who advises major casino companies on disordered gambling and runs 1-888-LAST-BET, tells the Business Press that one-third of the calls to his hotline either come from people under age 25 who are addicted to poker or Internet gambling — or from their concerned parents. “It’s unreal,” Wexler says.”

· “Students were discovered playing poker on UNLV computers during a recent visit to campus by the Gaming Wire’s Howard Stutz. Also cited, but not verified, were incidents of undergraduates being so deeply into gambling that they continued to play on their laptops even during lectures.”

· “Mark Balestra, vice president of River City Group which publishes Interactive Gaming News, says online gaming sites are now marketing to college students. “Clearly, the large group of players they’re acquiring now are younger, say, under 30,” Balestra opines. “It’s a very significant problem,” he says of underage play. “It’s more of a problem with poker because it’s geared toward a younger audience.”

Hmm. One of the “experts” who we think is there to show that the stories are exaggerated is none other than poker’s own frizzy-haired Mike Caro who says “Young people are more and more intrigued with gambling, there’s no doubt about it. I did a college tour recently. All the people were over 21.”

Okay. Thanks for the heads-up, Mike.

Pathological Gambling Is Exaggerated Among the Young, Experts Say [BusinessPress]

Cure Your Gambling Addiction With One Little Pill

READ MORE: Addiction, Gambling, Nalmefene

We have a very bad habit of taking whatever’s in front of us and putting it in our mouth. That’s why we love pills. But this new pill, Nalmefene, is one that we most likely won’t try since it’s now being tested as a possible cure for gambling addiction. Primarily used to cure alcoholism(Boooo…again!) researchers are lining up human guinea pigs with gambling problems and testing out to see if it works. However, we do find the requirements for the test cases, um, a little disturbing:

“Generally, we’re looking for people who have gambled once in the last month, and three times in the last three months,” said clinical psychologist Dennis McNeilly.

Doesn’t that qualify, oh, 90% of the population?

Could Pill Break Gambling Addiction? [NBC San Diego]