Is it the tingle and anticipation in your fingers?

Or, do you crave that sense of triumph?

Maybe it's the need to win back what was lost?

Addiction can start harmlessly with teens innocently playing cards or logging onto a gambling website. Soon, it can descend into the long road to addiction. Internet gambling is the ‘perfect storm’ for teenage addiction; anonymity, easy access and the use of credit cards where the value of money is irrelevant.

There is a human cost to general problem gambling. These include:

* Marital conflicts and relationship breakdown
* Violence and Unemployment
* Financial difficulties, debts or bankruptcy
* Criminal activities – to fund gambling
* Self-harm and suicide

For parents or friends of a potential problem gambler, the Number-ONE preventative method:

* MINIMIZE THE GLAMOUR!

Oh, if life was as simple as Ocean’s Eleven then everything would be hunky dory! Sadly, it is not that straight forward!

As teens, please remember, film and TV are very far from reality and those celebrities on those poker shows? Well, they are on TV and they are being paid to gamble! Plus many might already be millionaires in their own right, and they can afford a game now and then! They are NOT gambling to get rich!

SOME FACTS ABOUT TEEN GAMBLING ADDICTION:
Teen gambling is hard to spot. Unlike drinking, drug or solvent abuse, the effects of gambling are often invisible. The statistics are worrying:

* Studies in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Europe, and Australia have noted rising prevalence rates of youth involvement in both legal and illegal forms of gambling.

* Contributing factors can include: family members who gamble, peers, poker tournaments on TV, skillful advertising from gambling establishments, and the internet.

* In the U.S., regional surveys are finding that more than 30 percent of all high school students gamble periodically and one in three high school students gamble on a regular basis.

* Approximately 60% of global adolescents reported having gambled for money during the past year, 4-8% of adolescents presently have a serious gambling problem with another 10-14% of adolescents at-risk for developing a serious gambling problem.

Some schools hold fund-raising events which utilize bingo and casino nights. Probably not the best example to set!

* CONTROL
If you gamble socially then SET A LIMIT, CONTROL THE CASH FLOW and KEEP A RECORD.

Or, BE A REAL WINNER, find better ways to spend your time, and to get that sense of triumph and accomplishment.

..... Stop here Please click here to read : HOW TO SAY NO ... to Drugs or anything else you don’t want

The Rise of Teenage Gambling http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,972413,00.html "Craps" in schools: officials worry about teen gambling http://www.radioiowa.com/gestalt/go.cfm?objectid=70F2C363-5056-B82A-37EB... Problem gambling 'set to explode' http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3641512.stm