A study conducted by the Harvard School of Medicine, whose findings were published in the September 1999 issue of the American Journal of Public Health estimates that nearly 6 percent of American kids under 18 have a serious gambling problem. That s more than 1 million teenagers. The Harvard study s findings are consistent with other studies that found that 30 percent of New Jersey high school students surveyed admitted to gambling at least twice a week, and 90 percent admitted to betting at least once a year. The growth of gambling among kids would have been nearly impossible without computers and the Internet. They are wired right in their dorm rooms.
Colleges help the process by requiring the purchase of computers and making going online very easy.
They provide wired dorm rooms and free or reduced-cost Internet access. Twenty-five years ago gambling was legal in only one state. Today, almost every state has some form of legalized gambling. A computer in your own room, away from Mom and Dad s prying eyes, is considered almost a right in many middle-class homes. The problem is that there s a lot more you can do on the Web than research term papers.