SINCE social media has become accessible to everyone, some of today’s youths, including students, have become prey to online games and gambling.
A recent study by the Central Asian Journal of Global Health said 53 out of 300 Filipino youths have an addiction to online games, with 37 out of the number having a severe depressive condition.
About 59 percent of youths addicted to online games were males, while the remaining 41 percent were females.
A form of escape
One of them is Tristan, 15. Although he was not diagnosed with depression, he said he immersed himself in online games “to escape from personal problems.”
“Playing any type of online game has been my safe space because I often encounter family problems, and they are just making me overthink the situation. That’s why I just play games,” Tristan told republicasia.
But recently, Tristan became involved in online gambling out of peer pressure.
He said that during the rise of online talpakan (cockfighting), he became a frequent player of the game. It has become his way not only to escape from problems but to earn more money.
“I only have to invest a small amount of money, and the dividend from cockfighting is enough to become an additional source of allowance,” he said.
A recent report said illegal gambling operators are luring an increasing number of bettors, and many of them are minors and students.
It said the operators are targeting the minors by enticing them with their cashback offers, fewer restrictions, and free money for first-time joiners in order for them to gain the trust of these kids.
The country’s gaming regulator prohibits anybody below 21 years old from entering casinos, but the age requirement is not always easy to enforce in online platforms.
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Financial and family problems
According to Joana Marie Bangit, a 28-year-old public high school teacher in Bulacan, financial and family problems are two of the most common reasons why students become involved in online gambling.
Bangit also decried students’ exposure to online income-generating platforms like online gambling, where they can participate freely, even with only a small amount of money, because of social media and their easy access to the platforms due to smartphones.
Aside from online cockfighting, Bangit said students also commonly join bets on billiards and play, cara y cruz and even machine horse racing popularly known as video karera.
Poor academic performance
Bangit said that the students she handled who were addicted to gambling had poor academic performance.
Their behavior also changed, which was another cause of concern for her.
“What I notice in my students who are addicted to gambling and betting is that they are short-tempered, they lose their cool quickly when they are experiencing defeat, even during just friendly games at school,” she said.
She also noted that students who are frequently involved in gambling are “academically reluctant” and are always ditching their classes “to prioritize gambling.”
What’s at stake?
Bangit said this is a cause for alarm for teachers. Free counseling on this matter should be accessible to everyone since gambling ruins students’ future, she said.
However, students tend to lose the battle against gambling because of the lack of capable guidance counselors and students’ perception that the guidance office is a “detention and punishment facility,” she said.
She suggested that there should be more student-centered activities that would allow them to redirect their focus and would steer them away from gambling activities.
