On August 23rd, I attended a webinar held by the National Center
A brain is not mature until age 25, so if the average age youth begin gambling is 11, that leaves a lot of the development incomplete. An immature brain means that the youth is more open to taking risks. It also means that the brain doesn’t have good “brakes,” and that the “go” motivation develops faster than the “stop” motivation.
Early brain development is focused on motor development, emotions, and motivation while later brain development works on judgment. This means that if a youth begins gambling early on, he or she is more susceptible to developing a gambling problem because they might not know when to quit. As the brain is developing, this leaves youth more attracted to physical actions, high excitement and rewards, and novelties.
Novel stimuli release dopamine, which gives a feeling a pleasure or satisfaction, making such events more attractive to youth. What does all this have to do with youth and gambling? Youth are more willing to take risks for the reward of a dopamine burst, and they are less willing to consider the negative consequences or controlling their emotions. They have a tendency toward high excitement activities, a sensitivity to novel experiences, and they have less capacity for good judgment. All of these together make gambling very attractive to a developing brain, but very dangerous because of the lack of good judgment.
Links for further interest -
From The Journal on Gambling Studies:
NCRG Archived Webinar:
From Parenting for Prevention Newsletter, Tarrytown , NY
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