For Release:
June 26, 2002 FTC Warns
Consumers about Online Gambling and Children
Exposure to Ads and Easy Access to
Age Restricted Sites Among Dangers Cited
Federal Trade Commission Chairman Timothy J. Muris today
announced the results of an informal survey of websites to determine the access and
exposure teens have to online gambling. The FTC visited over 100 popular gambling websites
- and found that minors can, indeed, access these sites easily, and that minors are often
exposed to ads for online gambling on non-gambling websites.
FTC staff found that the gambling sites had inadequate or
hard-to-find warnings about underage gambling prohibitions, and that some 20 percent had
no warning at all. The survey also found that these gambling sites had no effective
mechanism to block minors from entering. Muris talked about the survey at a Roundtable
discussion he hosted with Representative Frank Wolf. Other speakers included Rachel
Volberg, Ph.D., a member of the board of directors of the National Council on Problem
Gambling, and Marianne Guschwan, M.D., Chair, American Psychiatric Association Committee
on Treatment Services for Addicted Patients.
"Our informal review of gambling websites,
child-oriented sites, and non-gambling sites was a valuable education," said Chairman
Muris. "Here's what we learned: Online gambling and kids is a bad bet."
The FTC wants teens and parents to understand the risks
associated with kids gambling online:
You can lose your money. Online gambling
operations are in business to make a profit. They take in more money than they pay out.
You can ruin a good credit rating. Online
gambling generally requires the use of a credit card. If kids rack up debt online, they
could ruin their credit rating - or their parent's.
Online gambling can be addictive. Because
Internet gambling is a solitary activity, people can gamble uninterrupted and undetected
for hours at a time. Gambling in social isolation and using credit to gamble may be risk
factors for developing gambling problems.
Gambling is illegal for kids. Every state
prohibits gambling by minors. That's why gambling sites don't pay out to kids and go to
great lengths to verify the identity of any winner.
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