Gambling is the practice of risking money and/or placing some kind of stake in a game or bet. As more online games begin to incorporate different forms of gambling, cases of youth gambling continue to rise.
Mallory Schultz, a counselor at the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling (CCPG), has expressed that teenagers often fall victim to gambling due to their brains still developing.
Shultz states, “So youth are more susceptible to any addiction because they have their brains still developing, their frontal cortex is not fully developed, so that will impact their decision making.”
Adding onto this, AP Psychology teacher and the new Dean of Students at Foran, Todd Williams, notes that dopamine and the ever-persistent possibility of rewards are what entice many.
Students themselves have noticed this growing issue with their peers. Foran senior Adrianna Aviz, a member of the Milford Youth Prevention Council, believes many teens start gambling without fully weighing the consequences.
“I think it starts off very mild, and what we’re doing as high schoolers might not even be considered like intense gambling, but I feel like it is just as prevalent and harmful and definitely can lead to a lot worse,” states Aviz.
