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Gambling lessons for this generation
Published: 2005-05-05
 Posted on Thu, May. 05, 2005
News: Gambling lessons for this generation
Compiled by Monica Villavicencio
NewsHour Extra
Researchers have also found that the more exposure a child has to gambling, the more likely he or she will become a compulsive gambler – as a teen and into adulthood. While 4 percent to 5 percent of adult gamblers will develop a serious gambling problem, underage gamblers are three times as likely as adults to become compulsive gamblers.
The first generation to grow up with legalized gambling is creating a rising number of teens with gambling addictions.
While other addictions such as cigarettes and drugs are fought with warning labels and celebrity ads on TV, parents and educators have not figured out how to reach teens addicted to gambling.
MORE TEENS ARE GAMBLING
Recent studies indicate that more than 70 percent of youth between the ages of 10 and 17 gambled in the past year, up from 45 percent in 1988.
Almost one in three high school students gamble on a regular basis, according to the National Academy of Sciences. Playing cards, the lottery, and scratch tickets as well as betting on sporting events are the most popular forms of gambling among teenagers.
“This is the first generation of kids growing up when gambling is legal and available virtually nationwide,” George Meldrum of the Delaware Council on Gambling Problems told CBS News.
ILLEGAL BEFORE 1978
Gambling used to be illegal.
During the early and middle of the 20th century, organized crime syndicates such as the Mafia controlled much of the gambling in the United States, often using it to “launder” (make to appear legal) the profits from other illicit activities, such as drug trafficking.
Nevada had a monopoly over legal casino gambling in the United States until 1978, the year casinos were legalized in Atlantic City, N.J.
New Hampshire introduced the first state lottery in 1963 and many states followed suit.
In the past few decades, gambling has grown into a giant corporate industry. Spurred by the legalization of gaming on Native American reservations in the late 1980s, gambling revenues grew from $8 billion to $15 billion from 1988 to 1994.
Seeing the potential for huge profits, more states began to legalize gambling and create lottery games.
Television shows featuring poker tournaments attract high ratings, as does the annual World Series of Poker.
HARMLESS ENTERTAINMENT?
Now legal in all but two states, gambling – whether it's the lottery, bingo, or poker night – has gained significant popularity and is seen as a generally harmless form of entertainment.
Researchers say parents do not worry about exposing their children to this habit as they might with alcohol or smoking.
“It is a situation where many parents still do assume that it's better for a kid to be gambling than to be out on the streets doing drugs or whatever,” Dr. Rachel Volberg, president of Gemini Research, which specializes in gambling studies, told the Christian Science Monitor.
But gambling is addictive. Studies show that problem gamblers exhibit similar functional changes in their brain's decision-making center as drug addicts and alcoholics.
“The neurobiology of what happens when somebody is gambling is much the same as what happens when they are taking cocaine,” said Linda Chamberlain, gambling addiction expert at the Center for Addiction and Substance Abuse at the University of South Florida on MedicineNet.com.
Researchers have also found that the more exposure a child has to gambling, the more likely he or she will become a compulsive gambler – as a teen and into adulthood.
While 4 percent to 5 percent of adult gamblers will develop a serious gambling problem, underage gamblers are three times as likely as adults to become compulsive gamblers.
Teens' gambling habits can lead to stealing from others and abusing their parents' credit cards.
Researchers at the National Council on Problem Gambling suggest that teens with a gambling problem are more likely to engage in risky behavior such as unsafe sex, binge drinking, smoking marijuana and skipping school.
Gamblers also have the highest suicide rate of any addicted group. In 1997 a 19-year-old New Yorker killed himself, leaving a suicide note blaming a lost $6,000 bet on the World Series.
ADDRESSING THE ISSUE
For underage gamblers, gaining access to gambling outlets is often easier than buying alcohol or cigarettes. The availability of Internet gambling sites makes age regulations increasingly difficult to enforce.
With a growing number of teens at risk of developing compulsive gambling habits, experts are pushing the government to hold hearings to address the issue. They want public service announcements or warning messages to educate the public on the dangers of excessive betting.
“It is a major, growing issue,” said Barbara Raimundo, a mother of a recovering gambling addict who now counsels other parent in Connecticut.
“Our youth need major help, and someone has to be willing to step up to the plate before they start getting really devastated.”
NewsHour Extra is the student Web site for “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” ( .org/newshour/extra).
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Buss Is Star of Chat Room In lengthy interview
Published: 2005-05-05
 May 5, 2005
Buss Is Star of Chat Room
In lengthy interview, Laker owner says he will meet with Jackson, praises Kupchak and defends O'Neal trade.
By Mike Bresnahan, Times Staff Writer
In 10 days, Laker owner Jerry Buss leaves for a six-week European vacation that will include Shakespearean theater in London and fine wine in Venice.
Before that, he is expected to meet formally with Phil Jackson within a few days, perhaps emerging with his new coach after extracting a few things from his former coach, namely that health and heart are not a concern and that Jackson believes this team can go far enough in the playoffs to warrant a reunion.
Buss is warming to the idea of reuniting with Jackson, sources said, even though they parted abruptly less than 11 months ago, and the new price for doing business with him could reach $10 million annually.
"I suspect we're going to pay something relatively close to that, regardless of who the coach is," Buss said Wednesday.
Jackson, 59, will not be offered a piece of the franchise or a front-office role in addition to coaching, said Buss, who thought Jackson and Kobe Bryant could patch up any wounds stemming from Jackson's criticism of Bryant as being uncoachable in a tell-all book released in October.
"No question, absolutely," Buss said. "I think it's the media that [caused] problems. From Kobe's perspective, he wants to win and if he thinks that Phil Jackson is the guy that's going to cause him to win, he'll hug him, kiss him and send him a birthday present. And I say the same about Phil. Phil is about winning. He wants the championship. If it has to be for him to go to lunch every day with Kobe, he'll do it. These people want to win."
So Bryant would endorse Jackson if asked?
"I really don't want to ask that question because he's not part of the decisionary factor," Buss said. "Kobe is the leader of this team but in terms of front-office decisions, that's up to Mitch, Jimmy and myself," he said, referring to General Manager Mitch Kupchak and assistant general manager Jim Buss, his son.
Jackson underwent an angioplasty to open a blocked heart artery in May 2003 and has been bothered by arthritis in his knees and hips, part of the health concern Buss mentioned Wednesday. After watching Rudy Tomjanovich resign halfway through the season, Buss wants to make sure Jackson's mind-set includes a steadfast commitment to return to the game.
Buss, who normally allows one in-depth interview session a year, allowed as much while sitting with media members Wednesday for the third time in 10 months.
With his eight championship trophies off to his right in an office at Laker headquarters in El Segundo, Buss talked about the Shaquille O'Neal trade and the direction of the franchise, reserving praise for Kupchak along the way.
Ever the gambler and a mainstay at numerous celebrity poker tournaments, Buss denied that he threw away a sure hand by trading O'Neal to the Miami Heat for Lamar Odom, Brian Grant, Caron Butler and a first-round selection.
"He's 60 pounds lighter in Miami than he was in Los Angeles," Buss said. "And as you've probably gathered recently, he seems to be having some [health] problems. My reaction was, if he was not willing to get in shape, which he had five, eight years, some number of times to do, and we urged him. It seems that the motivation for him to lose weight was to trade him.
"As you know, Shaq is in his middle 30s and it might be difficult to build around him. I suspect if I had known he was going to lose 60 pounds I probably would have made a different decision."
O'Neal's departure left the Lakers without a game-breaking presence in the post, among other roster concerns.
They have an unbalanced roster with four small forwards, are razor-thin at point guard and rarely show a desire to play anything other than half-hearted defense.
They are more than $20 million over the projected salary cap for next season, not including the cost of signing their first-round draft pick and the possibility of picking up a $5.4-million option for center Vlade Divac, but they could be busy in the trade market.
"I don't think anybody is untouchable," Buss said. "We would have to get awfully good value for some of the people on this team. I like the material on this team. But you know, when it comes right down to it, if you're offered something better than what you have, most people would take it.
"Don't go off and write that I want to trade Kobe. I don't want to trade Kobe. And I really think that somebody would have to give me their franchise, their arena, and the city in order to get him. I just can't imagine anybody coming up with an offer that I'd be willing to do that. But I don't like to say never."
Buss acknowledged that the second of his six children, Jim, had become one of his top advisors, but he saved the most admiration for Kupchak.
"Mitch has done in my estimation an absolutely incredible job in every single department I can possibly think of," Buss said. "Mitch has been around for quite a while and a lot of things that occurred before Jerry [West] left, Mitch had a big part to do with. I know what part he played and probably other people don't give him that credit but I do because he was there."
The Lakers failed to make the playoffs for the fifth time in the franchise's 58-year existence, but Buss filed the season away under disappointing, not devastating.
"The hardest season was the last time we didn't make the playoffs because I couldn't see any way out at that point," he said of the 1993-94 season. "And it took years to come out. I do not feel that we're years away now. I think we have much better material. Sedale Threatt was the only real ballplayer we had then."
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