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A rise in teen gambling addicts
Published: 2005-05-02
 Posted on Mon, May. 02, 2005
Teen Newshour: A rise in teen gambling addicts
Compiled by Monica Villavicencio/PBS NewsHour Extra
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 gambling addiction expert at the Center for Addiction and Substance Abuse at the University of South Florida Linda Chamberlain 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."
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How to Win with Harrah's
Published: 2005-04-25
 How to Win with Harrah's
Tim Wilmott and Susan Hailey talk about what the casino giant looks for in new hires. It goes beyond business knowledge.
Tim Wilmott is chief operating officer of Harrah's Entertainment, a casino-entertainment company. Before his appointment as COO, he was division president of Harrah's Eastern Div. Wilmott holds an MBA in Corporate Finance from the Wharton School's class of 1987.
Susan Hailey is the vice-president of talent acquisition for Harrah's Entertainment. From 2002 to 2004, she was the CEO of the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs, a nonprofit organization that helps women who are starting high-tech companies obtain venture funding and other assistance. Hailey holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, class of 1984.
Wilmott says successful candidates at Harrah's demonstrate the ability to manage large groups of people -- from the folks on the casino floor to the managers in the upstairs office -- equally well. He and Hailey recently spoke with BusinessWeek Online reporter Jeffrey Gangemi. Here are edited excerpts of their conversation:
Q: How is your industry growing, and how is online gaming affecting growth?
Wilmott: When I joined the gaming industry in 1987, Harrah's had four properties and gaming was legalized in only two jurisdictions -- Nevada and New Jersey. Now it's legalized in a dozen states, and we've grown our business from four properties and $1 billion in revenue into what will soon be over 40 properties in the United States and revenues close to $10 billion.
We have seen no negative impact from online gaming. In fact, it has helped us, particularly in poker. In the last two years, its popularity has just exploded.
Q: How do you value the MBA within your organization?
Hailey: We value it now more than ever. At the end of the day, the gaming industry is a fairly quantitative, analytical business. Harrah's, in particular, is driven quantitatively, so people who have been trained and think in terms of analytics do well here. It's important in terms of how we think and make decisions.
Wilmott: I'm constantly looking to decide who's going to run our businesses. Casinos are large-scale operations, each generating at least $100 million per year in revenue. My goal with the President's Associate Program, targeted at MBAs, is to give people an environment where they can understand how we serve our customers, what our strategy is, and how we use the information in our marketing database to create competitive advantage.
Q: What are you looking for in a new hire?
Wilmott: Aside from critical thinking skills, we look for a student's ability to communicate effectively through all levels of our operation. We soon will have 100,000 employees, many of whom are entry-level, unskilled workers on the casino floor or in food and beverage services. We need someone who has a good set of relationship-building skills and can communicate with all levels of talent within our organization and inspire them to take even better care of our customers.
Q: How does the recruiting for the internship program occur?
Hailey: This year, we're recruiting at Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management, UCLA Anderson School of Management, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Duke University Fuqua School of Business, Vanderbilt University Owen Graduate School of Management, Rice University Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management, The Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania, and Arizona State University W.P. Carey School of Business.
We choose our recruiting schools based on our track record with each as well as proximity to our market. In the fall, we give on-campus presentations. We also sponsor casino nights that benefit assorted student organizations.
In the spring, we go back to campus for interviews. We only interview first-year students for internships. This year, we're up to about 13 hires for our summer program.
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