A new piece of legislation that targets underage gambling in New York and is backed by Saratoga County District Attorney James Murphy, Assemblyman Peter M. Rivera and Jim Maney for New York Council on Problem Gambling, was announced on Wednesday, Sept. 1.
The proposed legislation would take several steps to curb the amount of youth engaging in underage gambling. It would expand the DARE program, which provides anti-drug curriculum in schools throughout the state, and would include gambling addiction; create of an underage enforcement system or mechanism similar to the underage tobacco sales enforcement; dedicate revenue collected from fining establishments that allow underage gambling to support gambling prevention and gambling treatment operations; and create of the Office for the Prevention of Underage Gambling in the New York State Attorney General’s Office to enforce laws prohibiting children from gambling.
We have a situation in New York where gambling options are everywhere in sight and easily accessible; where a new mega casino-style operation will shortly be operational at the Aqueduct Race Track and where the federal government is considering legalizing online gambling without any real means of preventing underage gambling, Rivera said in a statement. `Our children are falling victims to the trappings of gambling and the data we have here is clear evidence of the problem we must take responsibility to fix.`
Murphy said the Saratoga area is lucky to have taken some steps on its own to prevent underage gambling, given the various outlets readily available to area youth like the race course and Saratoga Gaming and Raceway.
`In Saratoga, we are fortunate that NYRA is ahead of the curve and voluntarily partnered with my office, the New York Council and Problem Gambling, local and state law enforcement and the Prevention Council to implement a pre-meet plan to prevent and deter underage gambling from occurring,` said Murphy in a statement. `In addition to reaffirming and revising internal policies and procedures, NYRA’s pari-mutuel clerks are briefed each morning about any underage gambling issues or incidents, who to look out for and the importance of checking identification. Additionally, NYRA security personnel are actively patrolling the SAM machines and approaching anyone looking underage to make sure that only adults are accessing those machines.`
Murphy said that Saratoga Gaming and Raceway works closely with his office to ensure underage youth aren’t slipping onto the floor, citing an `excellent relationship` with law enforcement and quarterly meetings to address the issue. He said the racino also took a proactive step in addressing the problem by committing $5,000 to the Youth Court program.
According to the New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services, a youth development survey of grades seven to 12 was collected between 2008 and September 2010, which found that online gambling by youth is at almost twice the rate of adult gambling, and 77 to 83 percent of teens are involved in some type of gambling, with 15 percent at risk of developing serious gambling problems. Of those numbers, about 20 percent of youth are in New York (about 300,000). The gambling practices included scratch off lottery cards, playing cards, sports or other activities for money, betting on raffles or charity games, betting online, at casinos or on animals.
Murphy said while the statistics are startling, Saratoga County hasn’t had any major incidents or even necessarily a greater problem than the rest of the state.
`We haven’t had incidents where para-mutuel clerks have been charged with a crime and presently, there isn’t a statute that covers the child or teenager who tries to gamble, so there’s no dis-incentive,` said Murphy.
Murphy said he believes a piece of legislation that could possibly implement a law similar to underage drinking and its consequences would be a big step in tackling the growing problem.
`Right now, there’s nothing we can do to dissuade them because there’s no criminal conduct, so what we’re hoping for is some statute like the underage drinking statute that we could pass through the legislature, so we can discourage kids trying to gamble and also the people taking the bets to be held responsible. Both sides of the equation would have no incentive to enter into an underage agreement,` said Murphy.
Murphy said the proposed legislation’s expansion of the DARE program would be especially beneficial in Saratoga County where the program already takes on a unique approach.
`The DARE curriculum has been criticize for its long term ineffectiveness and I tend to agree with that, but one we do in this county is to re-enforce the DARE message many times in organized ways throughout the child’s middle and high school career. I think a lot of communities fail because they don’t do anything past fifth grade,` said Murphy.
Murphy said DARE partners with the Prevention Council to run a DARE camp that transitions from elementary to middle school and provides prevention programs all the way through high school to reiterate the message.
`My office goes into every single high school. We just finished a whole year on preventing cyber bullying and sexting, and so the message is continually repeated and now the underage gambling piece would fit in nicely there,` said Murphy.
Murphy said he’s hopeful the legislation will pass.
`It has bipartisan support, both upstate and downstate support, and the work I do is not Republican or Democrat, it’s just community safety. This makes sense and I’m hopeful it will pass. But one never knows,` said Murphy.
Some gambling statistics for New York state: four Indian casinos; eight video lottery terminal locations; four thoroughbred tracks; eight harness tracks; off track betting; 16,000 lottery retailers; 4,150 free standing lottery machines; 41 Problem Gambling Prevention Programs; 27 Problem Gambling Outpatient Treatment Progams; and around 1 million New Yorkers suffer from a gambling addiction.
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