CHAPTER TWO:
ADOLESCENT GAMBLING

            This chapter describes the prevalence of gambling, including the differences in prevalence among various segments of the population and for various forms of gambling including the lottery, casino, and other forms of gambling.  Additionally, this chapter examines factors associated with gambling including age of onset, influence of parental gambling, gambling and substance use, advertising recall, and attitudes about gambling.  The overall prevalence rates for gambling presented in this chapter are estimates derived from a probability sample, and as such are subject to a margin of error of ± 3%.  Some rates for subgroups may be associated with a slightly higher margin of error due to the smaller sample sizes.

The Prevalence of Gambling

            The majority of adolescents gamble.  Table 2.1. shows that three-quarters of Oregon adolescents have gambled at least once in their lives and 66% gambled within the last 12 months.

Table 2.1. Lifetime and One-year Gambling Prevalence Rates

(In Percent)

            Boys are significantly more likely to gamble than girls, and older youth are significantly more likely to gamble than younger youth.  Percentages reported are row percentages.  Thus, 74% of the 539 boys in the sample reported gambling last year compared to 57.1% of the 459 girls in the sample [7].  Although previous studies have shown a relationship between race and gambling (Wallisch, 1996) our sample does not bear this out.

Prevalence of Lottery Gambling

            Although most youth gamble, only one-third of the sample reported gambling on the lottery in the 12 months prior to the survey.  Table 2.2 shows the rates of lottery playing.  The patterns of lottery play are similar to gambling overall: Boys and older adolescents are more likely to play the lottery than are girls and younger adolescents.

Table 2.2. Lottery Gambling

(In Percent)

            Table 2.3 identifies the most popular lottery games for 13 to 17 year olds.  Nearly 23% of the sample reported playing scratch-off tickets; Sports Action and Keno, respectively, are the next most popular lottery games, however, less the 10% of the sampled played either of these games.

Table 2.3. Lottery Gambling by Game

(In Percent)

            Although minors are not legally allowed to purchase lottery tickets, approximately 35% of those who had gambled on the lottery indicated they had done so in the 12 months preceding the survey (see Table 2.4).  Most of the illegally purchased lottery tickets were purchased in grocery stores.  The majority of young lottery players, however, obtain the tickets from family members (50%).

Table 2.4. Where Lottery Tickets are Obtained

(In Percent)

Prevalence of Casino Gambling

            Table 2.5 shows the rates of reported illegal casino gambling.  Approximately 19% of the sample reported betting money at a casino at least once in their life and approximately 12% (± 2) of the sample did so last year.

Table 2.5. Casino Gambling

(In Percent)

            The pattern of casino gambling is somewhat different than other forms of gambling.  For example, teenage girls reported gambling in casinos as often as did boys.  Although there is a trend towards older youth gambling in casinos more often that their younger counterparts, it is not statistically significant.  Non-Anglos were significantly more likely to have gambled at a casino at least once in their lives, however, the one-year rates were not significantly higher.  Surprisingly, about half of the casino gambling is done outside of Oregon.  Of those who reported gambling in a casino at least once in the last 12 months, 51% reported doing so outside Oregon.  The remaining 49% reported gambling in a casino in Oregon.

Prevalence of Other Gambling Activities

            Other gambling activities in which adolescents commonly engaged included purchasing raffle tickets, betting on sports with friends or relatives, and playing cards for money (see Table 2.7).  In fact, as Table 2.6 indicates, youth were more likely to participate in these other forms of gambling than play the lottery or gamble in a casino.

Table 2.6. Other Gambling Activities

(In Percent)

            As table 2.7 shows, purchasing raffle tickets, betting on sports teams with friends and relatives, and playing cards are the most popular forms of gambling among those respondents that reported gambling in the 12 months prior to the survey.

Table 2.7 Prevalence Rates for Other Forms of Gambling

(In Percent)

            Participants in the survey were allowed to respond to more than one answer for this question.

            Internet gambling is the least common form of gambling with less than 1% of the sample reporting gambling with money on the internet in the 12 months prior to the survey.

Prevalence of Gambling for Select Counties

            In order to examine the geographic distribution of gambling, the five largest counties were analyzed separately.  As stated above, the data were weighted to accurately reflect the proportion of the population residing in each county as reported by the Center For Population Research 1996 population estimates.  Table 2.8 shows that there are significant differences in the prevalence of gambling by county.

Table 2.8. Gambling Prevalence by County

(In Percent)

            Marion county's prevalence rates, for all gambling activities combined, are significantly lower than for Multnomah County, Washington County, and the Other Counties group, which is composed of all other counties [13].  As for casino gambling, respondents from Lane County appeared to report higher levels of casino gambling than respondents from any of the other counties, although the differences are not statistically significant.  Multnomah County had the highest rates of lottery gambling.  Rates in Multnomah County were significantly higher than for Washington and the Other counties[14].

Gambling Frequency

            Most youth gamble very infrequently.  As Table 2.9 shows, more than half of the 658 adolescents who reported gambling in the last 12 months, did so less than monthly (55%).  Not only are boys more likely to gamble than girls, but boys are also more frequent gamblers than girls.  Although the differences are not statistically significant, it appears that the older respondents are less likely to report gambling "less than monthly" and more likely to report gambling on a monthly basis.  However, the youngest age groups appear just as likely as their older counterparts to gamble on a daily or weekly basis.  Non-Anglos appear to be more likely to gamble daily and weekly and less likely to gamble "less than monthly" than their Anglo counterparts, but the differences are not statistically significant. 

Table 2.9. Frequency of Gambling

(In Percent)

Average Monthly Expenditures

            Not only do most youth gamble infrequently, youth report spending very little money gambling.  Most of the respondents who gambled last year reported spending less than $10.00 per month.  However, the expenditure figures reported in Table 2.10 should be considered only with caution.  In analyses not shown here, approximately 80% of the respondents who reported spending no money last year also reported that they gambled at least once in the previous year and 20% reported gambling more than monthly.  One possible explanation of this is that these adolescents considered the amount so trivial that they simply reported spending nothing.  Nonetheless, it is still instructive to examine expenditures to get some sense of the overall spending patterns which confirm other measures of gambling.  On average, older youth and boys tend to spend more than the younger adolescents and girls.

            It appears that boys spend significantly more than girls despite the fact that they do not make significantly more.  Table 2.11 shows the reported incomes.  By comparing Tables 2.10 and 2.11, one can see that boys report spending more on gambling than girls, despite the fact they do not report significantly higher incomes.  By the same token, older adolescents report spending more (though the differences are not statistically significant) but they also report higher incomes than their younger counterparts.

Table 2.10 Average Monthly Gambling Expenditures

(In Percent)

Table 2.11 Average Weekly Income

(In Percent)

Grade of Onset

            Younger gamblers are significantly more likely to have begun gambling in grade school (compared to junior or high school) than their older counterparts.  The left-hand column in Table 2.12 reveals that only 25% of 17 year olds reported gambling in grade school compared to nearly 77% of 13 year olds.  However, many respondents did not report a specific grade at which they began gambling--only 632 of the 757 respondents answered the question "In what age grade did you first gamble."  Several analyses were undertaken to be sure that the differences in grade of onset weren't affected by the missing data.  The analyses of missing data revealed that nearly all of the respondents who failed to specify the grade in which they began gambling were those that gambled infrequently and were primarily younger gamblers.  In order to provide a better estimate for group differences in age of onset, only youth who reported gambling at least monthly were compared to reduce the number of missing responses.

            The right-hand column in Table 2.12 shows that when excluding infrequent gamblers, the estimated relationship between age and grade of onset is still significant.  These two analyses, taken together, strongly suggest that, compared to their older counterparts, the youngest adolescents in the sample began their gambling at a younger age.

Table 2.12. Grade of Onset

(In Percent)

            Those who started gambling in grade school are significantly more likely to gamble and are more frequent gamblers than those who abstain until after grade school.  Table 2.13 shows the significant estimated relationship between grade of onset and frequency of gambling.  Of the 276 respondents who began gambling in grade school, slightly less than 15% abstained from gambling in the last 12 months, compared to a little more than 20% of those who waited until high school to begin gambling.  Furthermore, slightly more than 20% of those who began gambling in grade school do so on at least a weekly basis compared to only 11% of those who didn't gamble in grade school.

Table 2.13. Grade of Onset and Frequency of Gambling

(In Percent)

            It is interesting to note the authors found an increasing age of onset for adults presenting at treatment and indicating video poker machines as their primary choice of gambling (Moore, T.L. and Carlson, M.J., 1998)

Youth Gambling and Parental Gambling

            Previous research suggests that children are more likely to gamble if their parents gamble (Lesieur, forthcoming).  Evidence from the current study supports this finding.  Table 2.14 shows that the children of parents who gamble are more likely to gamble.  They are also likely to gamble more frequently than children of parents who do not gamble.  Children of parents who gamble are nearly twice as likely to be weekly or daily gamblers than children whose parents do not gamble.  In analyses not shown, it was found that older adolescents are not more likely than their younger counterparts to have parents who gamble.  Thus, it is not likely that the relationship between parents' and children's gambling is spurious.

Table 2.14. Youth Gambling and Parental Gambling

(In Percent)

            Not only do children of gambling parents appear to be more likely to gamble, but they also appear to begin gambling sooner.  Table 2.15 describes the relationship between grade on onset and parental gambling among children who gamble at least monthly (to reduce bias associated with missing data).

            Adolescents whose parents gamble appear to be more likely to have started in grade school than children of non-gambling parents.  Conversely, respondents who report that their parents don't gamble are more likely to abstain from gambling until high school.

Table 2.15. Grade of Onset and Parental Gambling

(In Percent)

Gambling Prevalence/Frequency and Substance Use

            Previous studies have suggested that teen gambling is part of a larger set of risky behaviors including smoking, drinking, and drug use (Westphal, 1998).  The current study indicates this is true in Oregon.  Youth in this study who gambled were also more likely to smoke, drink alcohol, and use drugs.  Additionally, the frequency of youth gambling was also related to the frequency of substance use.

            Tables 2.16 and 2.17 show the patterns of tobacco use (smoking and chewing tobacco), drinking alcohol, and using marijuana and other drugs (including cocaine, heroin, and LSD).  As expected, older youth are more likely to use tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs.

Table 2.16. Drug Use and Gambling

(In Percent)

            Table 2.17 reports the correlation coefficients for gambling and substance use.  The significant coefficients show that there is a modest but significant correlation between gambling and all forms of substance use.

Table 2.17. Correlation Between Frequency of Gambling and Frequency of Substance Use.

(In Percent)

                                    Note: ** = p<.01 (Spearman's rho, 2-tailed)

            As discussed, gambling, for many adolescents, is one part of a larger set of risky behaviors including smoking, alcohol, and drug use.  Part of this is due to the fact that older adolescents, as they near adulthood, are more likely to experiment with a wide range of adult behaviors.  Although it is also true that boys are significantly more likely to gamble than girls are, they are not significantly more likely to smoke, drink, or use drugs.

Advertising Awareness and Gambling

            As would be expected, youth who gamble on the lottery are much more likely to recall seeing advertising than non-players.  The percentages in Table 2.18 report the number of respondents who report seeing advertising "always" or "often" (compared to sometimes, rarely, or never) when asked questions such as the following:  “Think about the television programs you like to watch.  In the last month, how often have you seen TV advertising for the lottery?”  (see appendix 2 for a complete list of advertising questions).  Obviously, this is not meant to show a causal relationship, which cannot be done with cross-sectional data.  However, what the relationship between advertising recall and frequency of lottery play does suggest is that youth who play the lottery more frequently are, in fact, more aware of the advertising than youth who play less frequently.

Table 2.18. Frequency of Lottery Gambling and Advertising Recall

(In Percent)

            Table 2.19 indicates the proportion of youth who report seeing casino advertising.  There is no significant difference in advertising recall between the different levels of casino gamblers.  Although the percentage of weekly/daily casino gamblers appears much higher, because there are so few (n=10) the difference is not statistically significant.

Table 2.19. Frequency of Casino Gambling and Advertising Recall

(In Percent)

            The rates of recall for each form of advertising are broken down in the following Table 2.20.  Percentages reported are row percentages.

Table 2.20. Frequency of Advertising Recall by Type

(In Percent)

Adolescents’ Attitudes

            Nearly all the adolescents in the sample believed that hard work is more important than luck, and that gambling is not a good way to make money.  However, this study found that gambling is associated with certain attitudes about money and work.  Tables 2.21 and 2.22 report the distribution of responses to two attitudinal questions.  Gamblers were, not surprisingly, significantly more likely to believe that gambling is a "somewhat" or "very good" way to make money (p<. 001).  Additionally, when asked whether luck or hard work is most important for getting ahead in life, young gamblers were significantly less likely to say that hard work is most important compared to non-gamblers (p<.01).

Table 2.21. Responses to the question: To what extent, in general, do you feel gambling is a good way to make money?

(In Percent)

Table 2.22. Responses to the question: Some say that people get ahead by their own hard work; others say that lucky breaks or help from other people are more important.  Which do you think is most important?

(In Percent)

Chapter Summary

            Most teenagers in Oregon gamble.  In fact, three-quarters of the respondents in this survey reported gambling at least once in their life, and two-thirds reported gambling in the last 12 months.  When these results are generalized to the 223,456 youth in Oregon who are 13 to 17 years old (Center for Population Research and Census, 1996) this study suggests that between 162,899 and 176,307 youth have gambled for money at least once in their life, and between 140,777 and 154,185 gambled in the last 12 months.[25]  As would be expected, based on previous research, males and older adolescents are significantly more likely to gamble than females and younger adolescents.  There were no significant racial differences in gambling behavior.

            It is illegal for minors to purchase lottery tickets or gamble in casinos; however, in the 12 months prior to this survey approximately 30% of youth reported gambling on the lottery and 12% reported gambling in casinos.  Nearly half of those reporting casino gambling indicated they had gambled in casinos outside Oregon.  Of those reporting gambling on the lottery, approximately 50% said they obtained the tickets from a parent or family member and 35% indicated that had illegally purchased the tickets themselves, typically at a grocery or convenience store.

            Two findings which should be considered very carefully are that the younger adolescents were significantly more likely to report gambling in grade school than their older counterparts, which suggests that age of onset for gambling may be decreasing over time.  It is possible that older respondents are less likely to remember when they started gambling than the younger respondents.  Nonetheless, other prevalence studies done in Minnesota and Louisiana dating back to 1991 also show that grade, or age, of onset may be lower in younger respondents (Winters, et al., 1993b; Westphal et al., 1998).  Taken together, there is reason to believe that in the last few years, as gambling has increased in availability, young people across the country are being exposed to gambling at an earlier age.

            Another finding which should be carefully considered is the relationship between parental gambling and youth gambling.  Not only are children of gambling parents more likely to start gambling earlier themselves, but they are also more frequent gamblers than children of non-gamblers.

            Gambling, for many adolescents, is one part of a larger set of risky behaviors including smoking, alcohol, and other drug use.  Part of this is due to the fact that older adolescents, as they near adulthood, are more likely to experiment with a wide range of adult behaviors.  Although this study found that boys are significantly more likely to gamble than girls it also found boys are not significantly more likely to smoke, drink, or use drugs than are girls.

            Understanding the distribution of gambling behaviors is important.  However, gambling constitutes a wide range of behavior from occasionally playing a scratch-off lottery ticket with family members, to gambling on a daily basis in the face of social and financial consequences.  In the following chapter, the rates of level 2 and level 3 gambling among Oregon youth are assessed.