NSW urges parents to protect children from gambling-related harms

The government of New South Wales in Australia has turned to parents of children, asking them to serve as bulwark against gambling-related harms, as mounting evidence suggests that the youngest members of society are negatively impacted by the personal example of people close to them and their environment.

Parents can do more to protect children from gambling-related harm

According to NSW Government, this pernicious trend can be stemmed by having parents actively involve themselves with helping their teenage children to talk out their gambling issues and address the festering problem, with scientific evidence suggesting that parental influence can help many youngsters overcome their addictive behaviors.

This comes as part of efforts mounted by the Office of Responsible Gambling which launched a new public awareness campaign that follows research exposing the high risks of adolescent gambling, and the potential for parental influence in addressing the issue.

The research, funded by NSW Responsible Gambling Fund (RGF), which highlighted its key findings and the way that parental behavior can influence gambling in children for the better or for worse. The Role of Parents in Youth Gambling paper held a balanced overview of what is happening in the everyday lives of Australian parents.

For example, the report found that 70% of parents who gambled did so in the presence of a child, which further normalized the activity for youngsters. At least 27% of all parents surveyed said that their adolescent kid had participated in some form of gambling in the 12 months prior to the research’s conduct.

The most common forms of gambling activities for teenagers are lottery tickets, scratch-off cards, and other lottery-like products that are often gifted and thought to be harmless, but could be a gateway to more serious behavior vis-à-vis gambling.

Parents may also not be aware of all the risk factors that there are when it comes to exposing children to gambling. Other issues include gambling products that resemble video games, but also a lack of proper parental monitoring of a child’s behavior and whether they are in fact participating in underage gambling.

Evidence suggests that the environment is crucial for protecting children

One notable success of the latest report is that it continues to develop and build on the evidence that young people who gamble are vastly influenced by their environment. In other words, gambling advertising, peer pressure, and parental behavior or lack of concern are most likely all be contributing factors to bringing up a generation of vulnerable consumers who will struggle with gambling later in their lives.

As a result, and building on these findings, GambleAware is now using its newest campaign to help appeal to parents to be more involved in their adolescents’ lives and look for the signs of problem gambling.

The campaign also wants to make a parent better understand how their own behavior may be setting up their children for a difficult life ahead brought on by gambling problems. Similarly, GambleAware wants parents to know about the similarities between gaming and gambling, and how parents can actually build a safer environment for their children.

Not least, gambling advertising is still a potent influence on children and parents are advised to actively seek to reduce their children’s exposure to it.

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