Students on campus are taking matters into their own hands on how to obtain some extra cash. Gambling culture has significantly increased over the past couple years, and has found its way through Charter gates. It is now taking Charter by storm, leaving some richer and others with empty pockets.
Gambling is something that is heavily promoted, especially in the United States. Nonetheless controversy surrounds the subject, with the fear that people will get addicted to it, wasting away their savings. Gambling is prone to cause relationship problems, academic problems, emotional and mental stress, etc.
Students do recognize this, and seem to be taking it into account when they decide to bet or gamble. Junior Maximo Ortega says, “When you use money you don’t have, it becomes a problem. You just have to stay aware that betting isn’t a main source of income.” The National Council on Problem Gambling found that 60 to 80 percent of high school students gambled in the year of 2023, some meeting the criteria of addiction, and others “signs of losing control”.
Charter seems to have control over the situation, for now, but there is always the fear of students getting addicted and building bad habits in the future.
However, Maximo and many other students seem to feel that there is nothing wrong with friendly wagers, with the most popular games to bet on being Poker and BlackJack — worldwide known casino games. “I gamble sometimes, outside of school, with my friends, but with little amounts of money, like tens and twenties,” says senior Ryan Romero.
Ryan later expressed his concern about the risk of addiction saying, “We restrict ourselves to once a month though, it’s not good to get addicted because that’s how you can lose a lot in the future, and we don’t want to create bad habits.” Ryan is only one example of the multitude of students that are taking precautions against a gambling addiction; at the moment Charter appears to be handling the danger quite efficiently and has no reason to worry about a possible local gambling epidemic.
Are Betting Apps The New Wave?
Betting apps have become a huge part in gambling’s rise to popularity over the last decade, specifically sports betting. Apps such as Fliff, Prize Picks, and DraftKings have recently risen to fame, the minimum age to download the apps being 17. Though the legal age for casino gambling is 21, these apps make gambling accessible to high school students with minimal sports knowledge.
Students still face difficulty even with betting apps, since to actually cash out on their winnings a person must be at least 18 years old. However, students are still finding a way to maneuver through the little obstacles these apps are implementing. Zayaan Yousuf, a junior who’s dedicated himself to sports betting says, “Last year during the Superbowl, I put in $200 and cashed out at $3,000. I just put the money on my friend’s card and had him send me the money.” Students all over campus have been seen doing the same thing, where they wire the money to an older sibling or friend’s account.
Seemingly the regulations apps use to ensure a user’s age have proven to be useless. Nevertheless, it’s safe to say that betting has made its mark on Charter grounds, and plans to stick around for a little while. Whether it will lead to problems in the future or not is up to the student body and the precautions that they take.
