Isaac Rose-Berman doesn’t think that gambling is evil. After deciding not to pursue a doctorate in political science, Rose-Berman became a professional gambler for a time.
But these days, in his 20s, he’s finding himself writing, advising and talking to high schoolers in an attempt to set them up to make informed choices about gambling. He’s also a fellow at the American Institute for Boys and Men, which advocates for policies that support the well-being of those groups.
“I think my advantage here is that, like, I do gamble. I know people who gamble,” says Rose-Berman, who notes he gambled a lot before he was 21, the legal gambling age in most states. He says he understands the highs, the lows and the tricks companies play in order to keep players engaged.
The startling rise of gambling in American culture gives this work a sense of urgency.
Less than a decade after the U.S. Supreme Court opened the door to sports betting, gambling now seems pervasive. And it’s not just on sports.
“We’re seeing, on the internet, so much more gambling — advertising and marketing and social media influencers, like gambling influencers,” says Jérémie Richard, an assistant professor and clinical psychologist at the University of Ottawa.
These days, everyone has access to a casino in their pocket, Richard adds. And when you combine that with push notifications, a technique also common in social media platforms, it can overwhelm children, teens and even young adults.
Although underage gambling is illegal, it’s also common. A recent report from Common Sense, a nonprofit that studies the impact of media and technology on children’s well-being, found that more than a third of boys will gamble before they turn 18. Also, around 60 percent of boys saw ads or gambling content pop into their social media feeds, though most of the students didn’t feel the ads made them gamble, the report found.
Gambling addiction often starts in adolescence, when students’ brains haven’t fully developed. It’s causing some to sound alarm bells about whether there’s an emerging crisis, especially for boys.
Some researchers think that better math skills — like a firmer grasp on probabilities and critical thinking — would help.
By the Numbers
Gambling addiction can be tough for adolescents to deal with, especially because the consequences of the addiction are delayed, says Sarah Clark, a research scientist in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Michigan.
Teenagers are more prone to take risks, to feel invincible, and for gambling, the devastating outcomes of addiction can seem far away, Clark says. “It fits well with the fun, adolescent, ‘sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll,’” she says.
Common Sense’s report focused on boys, whose gambling the organization has come to view as a public health issue, according to Michael Robb, head of research for Common Sense.
But gambling is not a boys-only problem. Indeed, Clark expects that more girls will gamble in the near future. While the recent explosion in betting seems to have been driven by sports betting, which boys favor, the rise of online casinos, and of hiding gambling inside of games that girls play, along with prediction betting, will draw more girls, she says.
The taboos that once limited youth gambling aren’t really there anymore, either. Unlike the old days, when there was a taboo against visiting a physical casino, most teens now have easy access to gambling through their phones, Clark says. It means that students might still have to sneak off to smoke pot or have sex, but not to gamble. They can even gamble during class on their phones, she adds.
Clark worries that beyond the financial impact of gambling losses, popular forms of gambling seem personal in a more destructive way for teenagers: Sports betting and prediction markets give them someone else to blame when they lose. And students aren’t developed enough for these stressors, Clark says.
Worried about gambling addiction, researchers have started arguing for tougher regulations on ads that promote gambling, and for addiction screenings in schools.
A randomized controlled trial in six secondary schools in Scotland found that gambling curricula can boost awareness of gambling addiction among students. But it suggested to some that the approach would have limited success in preventing gambling behaviors. In Canada, Patricia Conrad developed early education interventions for drug and alcohol abuse. Since the number of people who will develop a gambling addiction is small, identifying and focusing on high-risk youth allows for a more targeted approach. And Richard, the clinical psychologist at the University of Ottawa, thinks that a similar approach could help in gambling addiction.
But at the school level, part of the solution is teaching students to become aware of their own thoughts and feelings. The goal is for them to understand how their minds and ways of thinking can fall into emotional traps, so that they can make informed choices in their lives. It’s the same work clinicians perform with people who get cognitive behavioral therapy for a gambling disorder, Richard says.
But in a sense, it’s nothing new.
Subtracting Addiction?
Gambling is unrepentantly mathematical, with companies that facilitate bets relying on sophisticated algorithms to track odds and ensure that they profit.
Indeed, schools have long referenced gambling in the classroom, often in probability classes, which instruct students on how to calculate odds. Even before the Supreme Court decision that allowed advertising to flourish, addiction experts had flagged youth gambling as a problem, one that math skills could help control. A couple of decades ago — with funding from public health offices in Massachusetts and Louisiana — this was even turned into a research-backed math curriculum that the authors argued could both boost critical thinking by students and reduce the likelihood that they will become “pathological gamblers.” That curriculum focused on number sense, data, statistics and probability.
These days, as American student math scores slide on national and international assessments, those interested in curbing addiction suggest that the need for these skills has only grown. Using math to make clear, rational decisions, when combined with a knowledge of basic probabilities and how the mind can be tempted into mistakes is critical for student success, they argue.
Ironically, Richard says, the prevalence of gambling might make learning math more digestible to students. It’s certainly more interesting than comparing slices of pie, which is how some students are taught probabilities. Bringing the math into real-life problems faced by students — as opposed to abstract, sterile ones — might motivate them to learn, he says.
Math is what separates gambling from other forms of addiction like vaping, says Clark. For example, gambling companies push parlays on people because the probability of hitting on a parlay is low, she says.
So in addition to basic math skills, students also need the ability to identify when they or a friend has a problem, and skill to critically assess how companies market gambling, Clark argues.
For instance, there are some particular tactics that gambling companies use to lure bettors, Clark notes. The reason these companies give free money for betting is that they have sophisticated data systems that convince them you will lose more than that. If a student understands the math and casts a critical eye on marketing tactics, they will be more resistant to problematic gambling, she argues.
Richard, the Canadian researcher, expects some parents or teachers to be reluctant to teach how gambling works, out of a fear that they would contribute to exposing students to gambling.
But abstinence may not be an option.
“Your kids are being exposed to gambling already, through advertising, through marketing, and so there’s nothing new there,” Richard says.
The scale of the marketing can be surprising. One study of professional sports, published last year from researchers at the University of Bristol, found that the NHL exposed viewers to an average of three sports betting ads per broadcast minute.
For Rose-Berman, the former professional gambler, it’s critical that students understand that all forms of “financial speculation” are rigged against the average person.
Knowledge of math alone won’t work to prevent addition, he argues. There’s complicated psychology to becoming addicted to something, and even when they know the math doesn’t work, students can fall prey to addiction.
Still, students should approach these activities with skepticism, and understand that companies are not their friends, he says.
When Rose-Berman presents at schools, he explains the basics of math to students, explaining why roulette and sports betting are rigged against bettors. A lot of boys are attracted to the ego-appeal, he says. They think that because they know sports they will come out ahead in sports betting.
Nearly half of the time, after he presents, boys share their idiosyncratic gambling strategies withto him, and he then has to explain why they would still lose money. Sometimes, that means explaining why it’s a poor strategy to bet a dollar and then if you lose, bet two dollars.
Other times, it’s more complicated. It can mean explaining to a high schooler why the fact that LeBron James has gone over his point total in eight of the last 10 games won’t help them to place a profitable bet. Hint: It’s not a reliable-enough indicator.
A lot of young men who gamble think it’s a good way to earn money in the long run, Rose-Berman says. It’s part of the overconfidence that they can have. And a lot of his work comes down to helping students understand that these are large companies that are trying to take advantage of them.
But if you are good at sports betting, these companies will kick you out, he tells them.
“They have really, really smart people whose job it is to figure out if you are good at this,” he says. “If they haven’t kicked you out, it means you’re a sucker.”
