“Place your bets, children!”. The frequency of gambling among minors and their relationship with gambling addiction indicators

This paper aims to analyze minors’ involvement with gambling, especially the relationship\r\nbetween certain games and the incidence of gambling addiction indicators. It also\r\naddresses gender differences. A gambling addiction prevention program named Ludens\r\nwas implemented with 807 students in public and private schools of Valencia. This\r\nprevention program contains a survey that evaluates the frequency of gambling as well\r\nas pathological gambling through NODS. The main results show that 62.1% of minors\r\nreported having played a game of chance over the past year. The most common ones\r\nwere sports betting and football pools. Among those who play, 22.6% have from one to\r\nthree DSM-5 criteria for pathological gambling, while 2.8% show four or more criteria,\r\nwhich is the figure used for the diagnosis of pathological gambling. Significant gender\r\ndifferences in frequency of play and incidence and vulnerability to pathological gambling\r\nwere found. The results obtained reveal that, although gambling is forbidden for minors,\r\nthis activity is not uncommon among them. Some types of gambling have a greater correlation\r\nwith problematic gambling indicators, which are also the games for which there\r\nis lax control over access to these by minors. This situation could be remedied - and\r\naddiction to gambling could be prevented - with appropriate regulatory measures, such\r\nas the gambler’s reliable identification.