Adolescent Gambling Behaviour, Attitudes, and Gambling Problems

This paper reports on data relating to adolescent gambling, problem gambling and correlates of problem gambling. Participation was strongly tied to age, with only 39% of grade 5 students reporting gambling and over 80% of grade 11 reporting gambling. A large percentage of the gambling involvement was on noncommercial private bets such as card games, dice games, sports bets and games of skill. Interestingly most students rated gambling as less enjoyable than most other activities including reading. In general the students understood that gambling was mostly a matter of luck, however, the students had a very poor understanding of random chance. Problem gambling was negatively correlated with the effectiveness of coping skills and the student’s understanding of random chance. We also found an interaction between coping skills and knowledge, suggesting that the combination of poor coping skills and a poor understanding of random chance are particularly important in understanding adolescent problem gambling.