NEW YORK (AP) -- Whether with their friends at parties, at school or in solitude on the Internet, millions of American teens are taking up an ever-more-accessible national pastime -- gambling.
Much of the action is small-time -- underage purchases of lottery tickets, playing cards or dice games for spare change. But experts say the long-term stakes are high because gamblers who start young are the most likely to develop addiction problems.
"This is the first generation of kids growing up when gambling is legal and available virtually nationwide," said George Meldrum of the Delaware Council on Gambling Problems. "Casinos, racetracks -- they take it for granted."
Nationwide statistics on youth gambling are scarce, but regional surveys suggest more than 30 percent of all high school students gamble periodically.
Middle-schoolers are following suit, as evidenced by the uncovering of a sports-betting ring at a Glenview, Ill., middle school last year. In Delaware, Meldrum's agency recently conducted one of the largest-ever surveys of student gambling; nearly one-third of 6,753 participating eighth-graders said they had gambled in 2002.
Such trends are the focus of research at the International Center for Youth Gambling Problems, based at McGill University in Montreal. The center's co-director, Jeffrey Dervensky, said studies indicate that compulsive gambling problems afflict up to 8 percent of young gamblers, compared with up to 3 percent of adult gamblers.
Adult gambling addicts may seek help when they realize their job or marriage is imperiled, but young people are less likely to do so, Dervensky said.
"These kids still live at home, and nobody's dragging them in, saying, 'If you don't go for help, I'm leaving you,'" Dervensky said. "These kids steal money, usually from their family. If you get caught, your parents are not going to turn you in."
Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling, said more than 80 percent of American adults now gamble at least occasionally -- a possible reason for what he sees as a worrisome tolerance of youth gambling.
"We've had a number of parents say, 'Thank God, it's just gambling,'" Whyte said.