“The tsunami is on the horizon,” she says. “And it’s going to be really, really bad.”
transcript:
AND MARTINEZ, GUEST:
The legalization of online gambling and sports betting in many countries, and all the hype about it, has raised concerns that more young people are becoming addicted. Here’s NPR’s Sequoia Carrillo.
SEQUOIA CARRILLO, BYLINE: Kim Freudenberg is a high school physics teacher in San Francisco. She is also a mother of two boys, which of course brought the usual worries and fears.
KIM FREUDENBERG: Lots of discussions about drugs and alcohol, sex and social media and wearing a helmet.
CARRILO: She knows there are many, many ways that kids, especially boys, can get into trouble before anyone even knows.
FREUDENBERG: I never even thought I should say gambling.
CARRILO: What she didn’t know was that one day, when her oldest son was 11 years old, he was watching someone play video games live and clicked on a link in the comments. This led him to an offshore online casino. There he got sucked into blackjack, poker, roulette and could use video game elements like money. He soon became addicted, but Fredenberg says no one knew.
FREUDENBERG: It’s not like he was just hiding in his room 24/7. It was like running a track. He played football. He was a great student.
CARRILO: Quietly, her son became an addict, making and losing money, selling things from the house to pay off his debts and then eventually stealing money from his parents. Her son eventually dropped out of college at 19. That’s when his mother found out he had been gambling.
FREUDENBERG: It’s so bad. And parents, I think, are so unaware of what’s going on and how potentially dangerous and life-destructive gambling can be.
CARRILO: It’s a problem that educators, researchers and parents like her say is affecting a growing number of young people, most of them boys. In 2018, a key Supreme Court ruling allowed states to legalize sports betting, and that opened the floodgates.
MATT MISSAR: I’m a Washington Nationals fan. If I wanted to bet on the Nationals 15, 20 years ago as a teenager, I would find a bookie and place a bet. But nowadays I can bet on every single step of the game – ball, shot, ball, shot. I can bet on that.
CARRILO: This is Matt Misar, an addiction counselor in Pittsburgh who specializes in video games and gambling. He says he has seen an increasing number of young people in his practice, even though no one under 18 can legally gamble. So I asked him – how do kids still do it?
MISSAR: It’s incredibly easy. Honestly, in the time I spent answering this question, I bet someone could download three sites, sign up with them, and be able to start betting right away.
CARRILO: A recent national survey by Common Sense Media, the nonprofit organization that focuses on children and media issues, found that 36 percent of boys ages 11 to 17 in the U.S. have gambled in the past year.
MICHAEL ROBB: That’s a lot of kids. For example, one third of children are many children.
CARRILO: Michael Robb is head of research at Common Sense Media. And he notes that playing fantasy football with friends or doing March Madness can be harmless for kids and can help strengthen male friendship groups. But for a minority of boys, things can get out of hand.
ROB: Not everyone will have problems. But given how much things have changed in the last few years, the way they deal with gambling behavior is already flashing red. It’s like something is wrong.
CARRILO: Kim Freudenberg wishes she had seen some of these warning signs. But even to a veteran teacher, online gambling can often seem the same as sending a text message to a friend or watching a video.
FREUDENBERG: If my child had to get in a car, go to a bank, withdraw money, go to a casino, enter the casino, show ID at the door, he probably wouldn’t be addicted to gambling. He couldn’t do all that.
CARRILO: After several attempts at rehab, her son is now back in college and doing well. She helped start a support group for parents, and every week the number continues to grow. And she fears there are many more parents like her across the country.
FREUDENBERG: The tsunami is… it’s on the horizon and it’s going to be really, really bad.
CARRILLO: Sequoia Carrillo, NPR News.
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