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Wednesday, November 22, 2023
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Youth roulette: New addiction fears Online gambling by NZ school students a concern
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School pupils are accessing overseas online gambling sites through their phones during school hours.
Bella Craig
nline gambling by students at secondary schools across New Zealand is of high concern, support services say, leading to fears students could developing gambling addictions later in life. School pupils are accessing overseas online gambling sites through their phones during school hours, a Herald investigation has found. Online casino games and sports betting have become popular with students at their desks. The Problem Gambling Foundation is “definitely concerned about this issue with high school students”. A former student from a private school in Auckland said he started gambling online during the 2020 nationwide Covid-19 lockdown, after he was encouraged to gamble with his older brothers. “They’d occasionally get me to put 20 bucks in with them [through] SkyCity online,” he said. He continued to gamble through school during Year 13 when he was 18 years old — the age required for most overseas online gambling sites. The former secondary school student now faces a gambling addiction and struggles financially as a university student. “I’ve found myself getting loans off my mates for the weekends,” he said. A former student of a secondary school in Hawke’s Bay said when he was at school, he started betting
money on overseas video game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s “skin” gambling website. The former student said as soon as his friends turned 18, they began going to their local pub and putting money on the pokies most weeks. “Sometimes it’ll be $100, sometimes $200.” He said after winning a large amount of money, his friends would withdraw the cash and, instead of taking the money, “they will find somewhere else and put it back in”. “Some nights, it could be upwards of $300.” Introducing phone bans across all New Zealand secondary schools was a hotly debated election issue, with National vowing to ban cell phones throughout all schools.
A number of schools, including Diocesan School for Girls, Otago Boys’ High School, Ashburton College, Christchurch Girls’ High and Rotorua Intermediate, prohibit students from using phones during school hours. Problem Gambling Foundation spokeswoman Andree Froude said because 18-year-old students are of the legal age to sign up to overseas gambling sites, it “exposes and normalises younger students [to] online gambling”. Froude also said the crossover of online gaming and gambling normalises gambling for students from a young age, and overseas sites could target young people with ads through social media. Although the advertising of gambling sites is illegal on New Zealand-
based platforms, overseas websites use loopholes through international social media sites. YouTube can be utilised in this way, such as in former Black Caps cricket captain Brendon McCullum’s brand deal with online gambling site 22Bet, which sparked controversy earlier this year. “Regulation in this country is behind the eight-ball,” Froude said. Currently, there are no laws to ban New Zealand citizens from accessing overseas online gambling sites. However, Kiwis are not protected by New Zealand law if they gamble offshore. The Ministry of Health’s (Manatū Hauora) most recent Strategy to Prevent and Minimise Gambling Harm said youth gambling may be less common in more deprived areas.
However, students who experience greater levels of disadvantage are more likely to worry about their gambling and be affected by higher levels of harm in comparison to people who experience less disadvantage. Other research from 2020, found about one in three students had participated in gambling at some point. A Norwegian study also found people who bet on gaming apps continued gambling online when they became adults and were at a high risk of problem gambling. AUT Gambling and Addictions Research Centre Associate Professor Maria Bellringer said: “Parents have been reaching out to treatment services, worried about their child’s gaming addictions. “Young people are digitally savvy and can get around restrictions [through methods] such as pretending to be their parents and using their credit cards. “Just because we don’t have hard research in New Zealand doesn’t mean this isn’t an issue.” From September next year, loot boxes will be banned in Australia. Bellringer believes this ban should be introduced in New Zealand. Loot boxes are a feature in many gaming apps that, when unlocked, contain upgrades such as costumes, new characters and in-game currency. However, they cost money, and the user does not know what upgrade they will get. Bellringer said children buy them as “they think it’s just a few dollars” — however, it sets them up to indulge in gambling habits in the future. According to the New Zealand 2020 Health and Lifestyles survey, just under half of youths aged 16-24 had gambled.