Online Gaming: A Gateway Drug to Gambling
About 3 months ago I went over to my friend James’ house to watch the NBA finals. While I was there the strangest thing happened, I repeatedly noticed the metallic jingling of coins. I looked to my right to see James screaming at the TV because Lebron had just missed another free throw in the dying seconds of the match, and then I looked to my left and saw James’s little brother Ben on his phone and I was in shock. To make it clear, I wasn’t in shock because Ben wasn’t watching the dying seconds of an absolute thriller, with the king himself at the line, I was shocked by what he was playing on his phone. 13 year old Ben was playing blackjack? And it made me wonder, Is this game going to influence little ben into action? And does Ben know the real value of money, or is it just a game to him?
Recently an article surfaced about a 13 year old losing $80,000 to gambling online after stealing his dad’s credit card to fund his gambling addiction. The article made me think, from an early age, myself and others have been subject to gambling throughout the course of life. Whether it be betting on the footy at a young age or playing poker with friends, gambling habits have always been present. It’s then made me wonder what the reason is for this and has the gamification of gambling had anything to do with it? the gamification of gambling via social media platforms, intentionally or not have been able to reach children and influence habits and addiction that is now benefiting giant betting conglomerates, such as Ladbrokes, Sportsbet, Neds and the list goes on. An argument can even be made that the children playing these games at such a young age don’t even understand the value of money and the role it plays within society yet.
The platform where gambling gamification is currently most prevalent is that of Facebook. Because of giant conglomerate social media companies, concern has now arisen on gambling gamification and its impacts. The lack of awareness towards regulation surrounding the issue almost makes it impossible to control. Although issues on regulation don’t stop at Facebook, betting agency, Sportsbet has recently been accused of influencing early age engagement of gambling by allowing millennials to sign up without identifying themselves. For those who aren’t aware, the gamification of gambling online has become a rather alarming issue, with simulated gambling and gambling-like games currently being promoted on facebook via social casino games that can be played by minors. This may not trigger any alarms at first thought but it does when you realise the correlation that gaming can have on influencing behaviour. Research conducted has shown in the past what impacts violence in video games can have on a child’s psyche. Recently a study found that violent video gaming was negatively related to perspective taking and the ability to sympathise. These same impacts can now be seen through the increase of children gamblers within today’s society.
This gateway drug to gambling via the gamification of gambling, highlights a child’s inability to conceptualise money and responsibility in games that involve real currency. As most of these games glorify winning and implement the idea that money can be won and obtained through luck, taints the idealistic views towards how money is obtained and how it should be used. With the idea of how money works being obtained from an early age, highlights the detrimental effect that gambling gamification and gambling in itself can have on millennials.
So how can this issue be solved? Well in general online content via social media platforms are very hard to regulate, not to mention the games being played on them. Therefore it is important to recognise which games promote gambling. Much of the discussion to better monitor this relies on the parents of children. Studies show that increased paternal ‘devotion’ and higher parental supervision throughout childhood, predicted lower rates of problem gaming in adolescence.
