Gaming and Gambling
I have lost count of the number of times that parents have commented to me about their son’s obsession with the games console. Fortnite has taken hold in the last couple of years amongst really quite young children, while older boys might prefer Fifa or Call of Duty. In general, the concern is one of distraction: ‘will my son become so addicted to his favourite game that his academic work will deteriorate?’ In recent weeks, however, there has been a spate of articles in the press suggesting something much more serious: that obsessive gaming can lead inexorably towards an unhealthy interest in gambling.
I must admit to a deeply-held aversion to gaming. Like many males, I had at times in my youth the tendency to become fixated on a single interest. Whilst a fixation with dinosaurs at age 5 is likely to be completely harmless, an obsession with a particular computer game is, above all, a huge waste of time. My Sinclair ZX Spectrum of the 1980s may not have had the processing power of modern machines, but even at the time, I felt guilt as a teenager that I was not using my time well when I spent hours on its sports simulations instead of engaging with something constructive. Having worked with children of both sexes during my career, I am convinced that boys are much more likely to fall prey to an addition. If we can turn this into a passion that will sustain them into a career then so much the better. However, more often than not, an obsession with a particular computer game either affects learning, or turns a young person into a passive consumer rather than a communicator or an independent thinker.
The direct link between gaming and gambling has never been more obvious. Even free tablet games aimed at young children contain in-app purchases whereby unsuspecting users can rack up considerable bills. I recall falling for this almost a decade ago when my children were very young. I had downloaded an apparently harmless game for my son via the Apple Store onto my iPad (as my children did not have their own device). I had connected my credit card to the account for simplicity and had not appreciated that my seven year old could innocently click on additional equipment that would cost me real money. Suddenly, I had to pay for £10 of in-app purchases just because I hadn’t clicked the right buttons when setting up the game. I have heard stories of much more considerable bills being rung up!
These games rely on such in-app purchases to make profit. Games like Fortnite offer ‘loot boxes’ that contain equipment to improve your performance. The message is clearly that you must upgrade to stay competitive. Subtle advertising strategies such as time-limited sales (“half-price if you upgrade in the next 3 hours”) are too attractive for youngsters who do not yet understand the real value of money. Fortnite’s profits of £300 million per month rely on these tactics and the use of loot boxes has become the norm for teenage players: 69% of Fortnite players have made in-app purchases, with the average player spending £44 over a year. Of course, you can ensure that no credit card is associated with your son’s account, but I am sure that many of you will have been exhorted to facilitate an upgrade: “please! Or I won’t be able to compete with my friends!” MPs on the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee recently recommended that the sale of loot boxes should be regulated as gambling, and that selling them to children should be banned entirely. I would agree whole-heartedly.
The indirect link between gaming behaviours and gambling is, however, probably even more worrying. Many games encourage you to gamble what you have in favour or bigger prizes that you could win. We might consider that this is harmless when we are dealing with imaginary money, but surely we must be conscious of the attitudes that his is promoting? The major betting companies are trying hard to influence the behaviours of their customers so that they become hard-wired in the brain. New customers are offered free bets or ‘supercharged’ odds to lure them in. Gambling is addictive and every effort is made to ensure that new gamblers feel that they are getting a great deal – that they simply cannot lose.
Young people are these days beset with messages glamorising betting. As an avid sports fan, I watch my fair share of our national sports channels where each publicity break contains at least one advert for an online bookmaker. The tone of these adverts is pretty uniform and the messages to young people clear: “betting is exciting; it is sociable; it heightens the watching experience; everyone is doing it.” The adverts are jokey, just like the beer adverts of the 1980s – surely our boys must be getting the impression that gambling is ‘cool’, normal and socially acceptable? It is also now much more accessible. There is no need to venture into the dingy betting shop – everything can be done at the click of a mouse.
As a results, we are facing a gambling time bomb over the next decade. The Gambling Commission has reported that there are currently 55,000 problem gamblers between the ages of 11 and 16. 370,000 11-16 year olds have gambled in the last week. The young people who will run up debts of more than £40,000 during their university studies are less afraid of debt that we might have been at the same age. Let’s be aware of the risk of them being sucked in by the gambling industry’s ploys. Similarly, we cannot afford to be naïve about the role of gaming in establishing the negative neural pathways that normalise gambling.