Agency offers lesson plans on gambling awareness

The Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey Inc. received a major setback when New Jersey Department of Education Commissioner [William] Librera pulled a 2004 revision to the Core Curriculum Content Standards, which would have required education in health and physical education classes to include addressing gambling in school curriculum.

The council has participated in presenting education programs in schools across New Jersey since 1984. The council speaks, by request, to over 60 high schools and 20 colleges each year, to students and educators who call us because of a serious gambling problem in their school or community.

The addiction rate for adolescents who gamble is twice that of the adult population. We have seen, in New Jersey schools, evidence of stabbings, shootings, organized crime involving illegal sports tickets, bookmakers and thefts because of students who have gambling problems. New Jersey has seen adolescent suicide because of gambling and even murder, when a 17-year-old student broke into a house to get money to pay off gambling debts with a bookmaker. We are losing a generation of young people to compulsive gambling. Education in schools on gambling awareness needs to be mandated.

The council receives calls weekly from parent-teacher organizations, health teachers and student assistance counselors to provide educational programs and raise awareness about gambling addiction among our adolescents. In the past three years, more than 150 presentations have been made to students in New Jersey by council prevention/education specialists.

Five percent of callers to the council’s 1-800-GAMBLER HelpLine are adolescents, a figure which is up from 2 percent last year. Thirty-five thousand youngsters were taken off the Atlantic City casino floors and 400 were arrested for gambling in 2003. There are several incidents of underage gambling on lottery and in racetracks.

The council has developed lesson plans for grades kindergarten through 12, but the implementation in schools has been stopped because the commissioner pulled the plug on any compulsive gambling awareness program in the Core Content Curriculum Standards. One class per year could make the difference.

In spite of it not being a curriculum requirement, the council is offering these lesson plans and training for teachers free to New Jersey schools. If you are interested in expanding gambling awareness among your students, contact Terry Elman, education coordinator, (609) 588-5515, ext. 18.

Edward Looney

executive director

Council on Compulsive Gambling

of New Jersey Inc.

Hamilton