Bookies threatened to cut off his mother's legs unless he paid up. Florida teens are not immune to this growing epidemic. When asked how she purchased tickets at 16, she stated older friends would purchase them for her. Adolescents with other addictive behaviors are particularly at risk for gambling related problems. All involve states of arousal which heighten or depress one's state of awareness.
Some teens turn to crime to solve gambling dilemmas.
In breaking up gambling rings at two Rhode Island campuses in the spring of 1992, authorities were concerned not simply with gambling but the evidence of extortion, threats, and in some cases, beatings that prompted some students to leave the schools and others to borrow substantial amounts of money to pay accumulated gambling debts. When kids have to drop out of school because they've spent their tuition money on gambling, that has a more serious implication than a student who experiments with marijuana. Intake procedures in addiction treatment centers and juvenile justice institutions should be expanded to include gambling related problems. Correction facilities should screen for gambling problems and address treatment issues before releasing adolescents. Rehabilitation is not complete unless the gambling problems have been arrested.