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Half of Italian kids gamble

Published: 08 September, 2010

Codacons, the Italian association for the protection of consumers, has released the first findings from a study of the relationship between young people and gaming. Still unofficial and yet to be published, it has emerged from research conducted by Codacons in conjunction with Italy’s state monopolies.

Gambling is growing at the rate of 13 percent a year, with €53bn bet in 2009 alone: and more and more adolescents are getting involved, as shown by the data from a study of 40,000 students, led by the Institute of Clinical Physiology of the National Research Council of Pisa (Ifc-Cnr) as part of the “Il gioco è una cosa seria” (“Gaming is a serious matter”) project.

In fact, according to the research, between 2008 and 2009 the percentage of students between the ages of 15 and 19 who stated that they had gambled at least once during the preceding 12 months increased from 40 percent to 47 percent.

Among the boys who had gambled, the proportion of those with a totally absent risk profile as defined by the South Oaks Gambling Screen Revised for Adolescents (Sogs-Ra) has shrunk from 70 to 67 percent; those with a low risk have increased from 19.6 to 22 percent, and those with a pathological risk remain unchanged (11 percent).

Gratta, scratch-and-win, and instant lotteries (34 percent, up from 28 percent in 2008); sports betting (17 percent); and lotto and SuperEnalotto (up from nine to 14 percent) are the games where the students gamble the most. Gratta and scratch-and-win/instant lotteries have been played by 36 percent of the boys and 32 percent of the girls.

“These are indeed worrying figures,” said Codacons president Carlo Rienzi, “especially if one considers how many young people are turning to the lotteries with the largest jackpots, such as the SuperEnalotto, with a dream of building a future and forgetting about the crisis that is gripping our country. The government must act to stop this mad race for the jackpot.”

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