Gambling: The Growing American Epidemic

Studies show nearly a third of eighth graders say they've already gambled

January 8, 2003
By Dale Hurd
CBN News Sr. Reporter

CBN.com – (CBN News) - Baseball great Pete Rose has finally admitted what he denied for 14 years -- that he gambled on baseball as a manager and as a player. But millions more Americans are still living in denial over their gambling addictions.

After admitting on ABC that he bet on baseball, Rose is hoping now for a new start, after being banned from the game and kept out of the Hall of Fame.

Rose's gambling addiction has put a spotlight on a national problem. A Senate committee says Americans spend well over $60 billion a year gambling.

And Americans are gambling younger. Studies show nearly a third of eighth graders say they've already gambled.

Ed Looney, spokesman for the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey, said, "The first process is really to get some education in schools. We're losing a generation of young people to gambling." The Internet has only made it worse. In 1995 there was only one online gambling site. Today, there are about 1,800.

Keith Whyte, of the National Council on Problem Gambling, said, "The consequences can be severe. Especially the earlier you start gambling, the more likely you are to develop gambling problems. And because there's no blurry eyes, no track marks, gambling problems are hidden. The substance they abuse is money, and it's astronomical."

While Rose no longer portrays himself as a compulsive gambler, he says in his new book that he still loves to gamble legally at racetracks. But the organization Gamblers Anonymous says that's not the road to wholeness--that compulsive gamblers have to stop gambling completely.

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