Last month, the FBI arrested more than 30 people, including Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, for their alleged roles in illegal sports betting. The probe is prompting questions from public officials about the integrity and accessibility of sports betting apps. With this as the backdrop, WAMC’s Capital Region Bureau Chief Jesse Taylor spoke with the New York Council on Problem Gambling’s Prevention Manager Stelianos Canallatos about the rise of sports betting and its effect on the youth.
The number of people using sports betting apps is large. Is an astronomical number of individuals that are using sports betting apps, and then increases every day, especially when we're looking at the exposure to the media, the excitement, the hype, the colors, and really the engagement when we're looking at either friends and family, if we're looking at engagement, looking at live streams, if we're looking at just the many ways to engage the New York state, New York residents and participating in this activity.
So sports betting apps have exploded in recent years. Is it contributing to more gambling addiction?
There has been an uptick in phone calls to support lines and help lines, still too early to really identify with research, except for the fact that, yeah, we do. We have an uptick in phone calls to helpline. So we know people are reaching out. There is a younger demographic that is starting to reach out. There's a younger demographic that we've heard from individuals in recovery, in gamblers, anonymous, that they're finding there is a younger crowd that is engaging in more problematic gambling, and we know through research that problematic gambling is much easier to become. Gambling can become problematic much quicker with youth and young adults because brain development. They're they're just not fully developed. They are in a process of brain development. But the brain doesn't really fully develop until the mid 20s. So if we're talking about young adults, 1819, even 20, the last part of the brain to develop is the prefrontal cortex. So if you touch your forehead, that's where it is, and with that part being this epicenter of judgment and decision making, with that being the last part to develop, it is still difficult for individuals to not just make the best decisions for themselves, but also to recognize the potential impact that their decisions can make. And I think you know, anyone with a teenager or with you know some form of young adult knows that they're wild and they're supposed to be they're supposed to be testing boundaries and taking risks and trying new things to explore and break through the boundaries that their parents had set for them to keep them safe and do the best parenting they can, but they're growing as individuals and figuring out, who am I as an individual, as a part of this family, as a part of my friend group, my culture, my community, my school, but who am I and how do I stand out as an individual? And so when we keep that in perspective and recognize that the brain does not fully develop until the mid 20s, it's important that we give people the tools, especially youth and young adults, give them tools to empower them to make decisions for themselves. You know, I, you know, like I said a minute ago, I have kids, and I'm not always there anymore. They're 11, they're 12, so they're with their friends, they're going out with parents and doing different things. I'm not going to be there, and it will be less and less and less often that I will be there. So what I want to do is to empower them to recognize risky behavior, to recognize when things could go wrong, to recognize that and be able to take action. What will you do? And you know, what can you do on your own before you have to call myself or their mother to figure out how to handle these different challenges
When you mention this younger demographic, what exactly do you mean about that? Are we talking about college age kids or people that are younger than 18?
So it really depends on what you want to focus on, because every age group has risks. So there is research that we had that told us that youth started gambling under the age of 10, some of which especially those that have had some problems. If we're talking about youth in the age range of 12 to 17, we know that 23% of New York State youth as of 2022 Youth Development survey, 23% of youth are gambling, and 30% of youth think that it would be easy to get involved. So you know, clearly, this is not something that is. They're not. They don't have to work very hard to participate in these activities, and the most the. The time that youth, 12 to 17 years old, engage in gambling behaviors is on the weekends. Well, that just makes sense, because that's where they have the most time to kill, especially if they're younger, they don't have a job, you know, if they don't work on a farm where they help their parents work through that, and they, you know, engage in activities that are not, you know, risky in a negative way. And then, if we're talking about college students, a study conducted in with the University of Albany was discovered that 24.9% of students reported gambling at some point. So with that number, it's slightly higher, but again, that's a continuation. We're seeing that if they start young, they're more likely to continue young and when we're seeing the different increases, we know, if we're looking at things that we've been preventing, specifically substance use for youth, we know that more exposure has an increased probability. So if we live in a town that has 10 bars, people are much more likely to engage in drinking behaviors, as opposed to a town that has one, there's more exposure, there's more opportunity, there's different styles of bars that approach different subcultures within the community. So we know as the availability increases, the problems increase, and we can see that. So again, we know with increased availability, we saw it with daily fantasy sports, and then now mobile sports betting, and then, you know, New York State is looking into different ways for I gaming. So there's different availability for these different types of gambling opportunities. And again, we're seeing that increase, and it's not safe, especially for kids under the age of 18. It's not a safe behavior where the the risk is risk is too high, because we're talking about as these brains are developing. Again, what's happening is the things that kids find exciting, they're going to continue to do right? No one's going to run and hit their head on a wall and then just stop what they're doing. They're going to hit that wall and say, that hurts, not doing it anymore. But if they do something that's engaging and exciting and whatever, they're going to do more of that. And if they continue doing this behavior, good or bad, it will start to become part of who they are, and that will be the behavior they turn to when they are dealing with tough times, whether it's going for long bike rides or gambling, they're going to go to the thing that makes them feel good. So again, we're looking to prevent that specifically, at least for, you know, kids under the age of 18, so that these behaviors do not become their coping mechanism, which will have a higher chance of becoming a problem in the future. Right?
So is it likely that somebody that starts gambling at a younger age would continue those gambling habits into adulthood?
I think if we look at any human behavior, whatever people do when they're younger, they will enjoy when they get older. I was brought up in a household where fitness and health was highly prioritized. That's what I do now. I enjoy healthy behavior. I enjoy things that are good for you know, my body. There are some people that are into sports and those families, if you know your dad's into soccer, you know, if you teach your kids that's what you enjoy doing, your kids will be exposed to it. They might like soccer more. If there's an artist in the family, there might be more artsy things going on, and there's a better chance that kids will carry that on as they get older. So if we're looking at any behavior that starts young, there's a probability, a much higher probability, to do more of that behavior. I was not brought up in a family that went to action parks and did roller coasters a lot. I don't do roller coaster I'm not a fan of roller coasters. So it's just one random example, but if we're looking at it from that perspective, the answer is really Yes, especially when we're talking about people in recovery. Many of them started young, and many of them describe their experience as lifelong, where they struggle, and then maybe they had a dip, and then they struggle more. And a lot of those struggles, there are trigger points. There are many trigger points, whether it's trouble at home as a kid, divorce, loss of a loved one, change in a job. So we all have these major life changes, going from high school to maybe college, living on campus, hour or two away. It's a major life change. So all of these major life changes can trigger people to have difficulty, and those are the points where they'll start relying on the behaviors that feel good. They're going to look for the most likely when we're hurting as people, we tend to go. For the quick fix. That's where issues with alcohol, food, gambling, shopping, this is where these different problems start to kick up, because we're trying to soothe a feeling that we don't like. So again, anything that people have been doing their past that feels good, that's what they're going to turn to. That's what they're going to feel like is going to make them whole, or at least sustain something positive over this time period.
Okay, I think that's all I have for you. I appreciate your time. Thank you for talking to me today,
Absolutely thank you for having me.
