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John Welte is a senior research scientist at UB's Research Institute on Addictions and an expert on the prevalence of problem gambling.
Is the prevalence of NCAA basketball office pools a sign of a
growing cultural acceptance of gambling?
I don't think there's
any doubt that there's a growing cultural approval of gambling. The
spread of casinos is the best example of this. There's a growing
normalization of gambling, a growing insertion of gambling, in our daily
lives. For the vast majority of people who participate in NCAA office
pools, it's harmless fun. If you look at the prevalence of problem
gambling, you're talking about a very small percentage of the
population. However, I do believe the prevalence of problem gambling is
growing and I believe the increased saturation of the environment by
gambling contributes to the growth of gambling problems for some
people.
Could participation in an NCAA office pool lead to problem
gambling?
I believe that a lot of what is considered "small
potatoes" gambling is innocuous for a vast majority of the population,
but I don't believe that any of it is innocuous for everyone. We know
that there are individual characteristics that make people predisposed
to problem gambling. For example, if a person has a substance-abuse
disorder, he or she is much more predisposed to have a gambling problem;
but I also believe that problem gambling is an interaction between
people's individual characteristics and their environment. Among people
who are vulnerable to gambling, a few more get pushed over the line as
the gambling builds up in their environment. I'm not saying that the
easy availability of gambling is going to make everyone a problem
gambler—the vast majority of people would never be problem gamblers
no matter how much access they had to gambling. But I am saying a few
people will be pushed over the line and the prevalence of gambling is
going to get higher. The same principles apply if you turn on the TV and
see people playing poker, if you go to the office and see people filling
out NCAA pools or if you go down the street and see people in a casino.
The research shows the more access people have to gambling, the more
likely there will be an increase in the prevalence of problem gambling.
There are now several casinos within an easy drive of the Buffalo
metro area, with another one planned for downtown Buffalo. So, does this
mean we're going to see more problem gambling in Western New York?
Absolutely. In a national study I conducted in 2000, I found that
individuals who lived within 10 miles of a casino were twice as likely
to be problem gamblers as those who did not live near a casino. This
is a highly significant statistic. In my opinion, the availability of
casinos leads to more problem gambling. Of course this doesn't prove
that casinos cause it, but I think it's reasonable to say that if you
make gambling more available, you'll get more problem gamblers.
Are NCAA basketball pools an invitation to teens and college
students to become more serious gamblers?
Poker may be the most
popular form of gambling among young people right now. I'm currently
conducting a national survey of youth gambling. The preliminary results
show that gambling on cards is the most popular form of gambling among
people ages 14 to 21 in this country. If a teenager's family and friends
approve of gambling, then those teens are more likely to be problem
gamblers, research shows. It's easier to become a problem gambler if the
people around you don't express disapproval of gambling. This is what is
known as social availability to gambling.
What are the goals of this study of youth gambling?
There
are two goals. The first is to determine how much problem and
pathological gambling there is among young people. The second goal is to
determine if there is any relationship between youth gambling and state
gambling laws and the type of neighborhoods youth live in.