Drugs. Alcohol. Cigarettes. Substances.
The detrimental effects explained over and over again in health class, the addiction warnings posted on every package, the stories of people being sent to treatment centers. Yet there is one addiction affecting many that is overlooked: Gambling.
Although gambling is usually only associated with old men at the slots and tables, these games are a bigger part of teenagers’ lives—and have far more serious consequences— than most people realize.
Gambling employs the same highly addictive process as “more serious” addictions. You have a repeated behavior, which triggers a dopamine release. For drugs and alcohol, an artificial chemical triggers this release, whereas gambling relies on risks and rewards. You commit to a risk and get rewarded. That reward, which applies to everything from human emotions to training a monkey to do math problems, gives you motivation. A bad outcome to a risk makes the eventual good outcome seem sweeter, while the good part gives you hope (what if the next risk gives you the reward?) These two parts get the human brain instantly addicted, making it easier to lure in students in the future.
Given the way gambling is designed to be addictive, it’s no secret that gambling takes a toll on you and your mental health. If students were to get addicted, they could face a multitude of problems, and all could be avoided by refraining from gambling and gambling-like behaviors in the first place. When the risks get too grand and the outcome too devastating, it can create financial stress, strained relationships and a negative mindset. It also affects the people around you: for every person seriously addicted to gambling, an average of six others are affected, as per the World Health Organization (WHO). On the WHO website, gambling is listed on the same page as abortion, ultraviolent radiation, and many other health-related topics. This addiction is just as important as all of these diseases and healthcare programs. It’s not just a bad habit—it’s a serious threat to your health.
But there’s an age minimum—why would all of this happen to students right now? It may not seem like it matters to teenagers, but it affects them earlier on through gambling-like practices.
In thousands of different TikToks: “Phones give unnatural dopamine”—sound familiar? Screen times have been racked up dramatically recently, addictions running rampant, taking time away from everyday life. WHO defines gambling as “risking money (or another item of value) on an event of uncertain outcome, with the possibility of gaining an increased return.” A phone addiction works the same way. It is a simple process of reward and withdrawal. You want a good tiktok again. You might win again; you might lose again. Phone addictions give you dopamine in exchange for something more valuable than money: time.
Like coins into a slot machine, when time is used as payment, you can’t get it back. The famed “teenage dream” gets shorter. A precursor addiction that takes away important things such as time could lead to an increased chance of a more harmful addiction later on. If you gamble your time, or money, or anything of value away, the outcome will never be as good as what you gave away.
Among our 11 person editorial staff, 73 percent believe gambling is a prominent problem for people under 18. Though there’s no easy purchase like other substances, gambling is still accessible. We’re certainly exposed to it with advertising. But definitely more than we think; we’re already in this game of give and take.
While gambling can be a fun activity with friends, it’s important to remember that virtually anything can be harmful in excess, especially if it’s addicting. Because the give-and-take of doomscrolling is eerily similar to the reward of big wins at the slots, these gambling-like behaviors set students up for bad effects now and devastating effects later. Self control is key; you need to know when to stop. With anything artificial like this, the focus should not be on the gambling, or the phone, or whatever it is; it should be on the people around you and the experiences you have with them.
