3% of Ontario students, grades 7 to 12, show signs of a gambling problem
A new study by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health shows some 29,000 Ontario middle and high school students report behaviours linked with problem gambling. Dr. Robert Mann, the study’s lead researcher, says close to three per cent of students in Grade 7 to 12 showed signs of a gambling problem, such as gambling more than they planned to or skipping school to gamble.
Those students also reported higher rates of substance abuse, delinquent behaviour and suicide attempts than the general student population. Nearly half of students participating in the study took part in at least one form of gambling over the course of a year, usually betting on card games or buying lottery tickets. The information was collected in 2009 through the centre’s Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey. About 9,000 students across Ontario took the survey and roughly half filled out the gambling questionnaire.
The Canadian Press