Lesson video

Right, welcome to the RSHE, PSHE lesson with me, Mr. Duffy.

Today, we're going to look at internet safety and harm, gambling, debt and targeted advertising.

Today's lesson is called understanding gambling.

Now this lesson does cover issues about gambling and addiction.

If this is a sensitive topic to you, we recommend checking with a trusted adult before starting or doing the lesson with a trusted adult nearby.

So, hopefully, you've done your intro quiz and you did really well at that.

We're going to look at the types of gambling, the purpose of gambling, the impact of gambling, and finally, you do your exit quiz at the end of the lesson.

So let's take a look at some key words then.

So gambling is playing games of chance for money or material goods.

An addiction is defined as not having control over doing, taking, or using something to the point where it could be harmful to you.

So for this lesson, you will need an exercise book or paper because you will need to write some things down.

There are going to be some tasks along the way, in which case you will need a pen or a pencil.

So let's take a look at the law then before we start.

So in the UK, you need to be at least 18 years old to gamble legally, whether that is online or live.

The minimum age gambling for lotteries and football pools, however, is 16.

So what types of gambling can you think of? What I want you to do is pause the video, write down some ideas and I'll see you in a second.

Fantastic.

So the different types of gambling then could include things like arcades for adults and those for families.

So you think about arcades at the seaside.

Some of those arcades are primarily for adults and it will say strictly over 18 only, and then there are some more family friendly arcades as well.

Betting, online, at an event or in a high street bookmakers.

The bingo, for example, in a bingo hall.

A casino that could be either online or in a casino at a live setting.

Lotteries that include raffles, tombolas and sweepstakes, and gaming machines such as fruit machines, fixed odds betting terminals.

So betting on horse racing is a form of sports betting.

Is that true or false? Make your choice.

I'll see you in a second.

It is true.

So betting on horse racing, or horse betting commonly known as, occurs at many horse races.

Gamblers can stake money on the final placement of the horse taking part in the race.

So the types of betting then that are available.

So we've got arcades, we've got betting and we've got bingo.

So arcades are things like adult gaming centres.

So these include things like fruit machines and the slot machines.

Then licenced family entertainment centres as well.

So those are the ones that you might see at the seaside and unlicensed family entertainment centres.

Now betting, fixed odds betting, is the most common form of betting.

So this is something like if you were to stake a 10 pound bet at odds of two to one on the horse racing, you would win 30 pounds.

20 pounds would be your winnings and 10 pounds would be the stake, or the money that you bet, if you were successful.

If you were to lose, you would lose your 10 pound bet, or the stake.

You've also got pool betting, something like the football polls.

Acting as a betting intermediary, spread betting which is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

So you've got bingo betting.

So bingo betting is a game of probability, which players mark off numbers on cards and as the numbers are drawn randomly by the caller, for example, 11, 27, the winner is the person to mark off all their numbers.

In some cases, they may have a line which could be four in a row and they would shout out, "Line" and they'd win maybe a small prize.

If they were to get all the numbers, they would shout out, "Bingo," And in which case they would win maybe the ultimate prize, or the bigger prize.

You've got what we call casinos.

Now these can be available online or at a casino premises.

Now, obviously at the moment, everything is all online.

Lots of things are online.

The casinos are currently shut.

So one of the things is that casinos have been heavily used all online, which means they have easily accessibility.

That you're easily able to access them.

So most casinos offer a variety of games.

You can play things like poker, black jack.

There's also gaming machines in there.

So there's lots of variety at casinos.

We talked about lotteries.

Now you need to be 16 to play a lottery.

However, a lottery can only be run for good causes.

So you think about the National Lottery.

We will pay our money and we would enter the lottery.

We'd get our numbers and we'd enter that lottery.

The lottery, however, for itself is a charity and will give money to good causes with a prize fund available as well.

Okay? So things like raffles and tombolas, sweepstakes are all types of lottery.

We've also got the gaming machines.

Now these gaming machines are reel-based type, also known as fruit machines, slot, or jackpot machines.

And these are the ones where you pull a lever and the numbers or images spin round and hopefully you'll get three in a row and you'll win some form of prize, usually in the form of money.

So why do people gamble then? So we've seen the different types of ways in which we can gamble.

So why do people gamble? Pause the video and I'll see you in a second.

So many people gamble as a fun pastime.

However, some people can become addicted, but for most people it's generally they go to horse races for a lovely afternoon meet, gamble a little bit of money on the horses.

It could be the Grand National, for example.

But they turn up, they gamble a little bit of money, and have fun along the way with their friends.

However, for some people that thrill of winning can become quite addictive.

Some people make money when they win, and for some people that joy of making money and winning money is really fun and something that they enjoy.

However, as we all know, gambling can lead to losses and some people might lose a little bit of money.

something that certainly they won't miss over a period of time.

They can afford to gamble.

They're using money that they've got spare and they can afford to lose a little bit of money on the day.

For some people though, they can't afford to lose that huge amount of money that maybe they're gambling.

And that's why it can become a real problem.

A lot of people enjoy the thrill of winning and for most people, yes, their horse has come first, they've won a nice amount of money.

They're really happy, they're excited, they're ecstatic, and that's it.

They go about their day as normal, they go about their evening as normal and their life continues.

But for some people that thrill can be so addictive that they need that thrill a lot.

And they need that more and more.

It's a bit like taking a drug in that sense that they've taken a drug, they enjoy the feeling and they require more of that feeling and take more drugs to get the same feeling, and that can be the same for gambling.

So what is the impact of gambling on people then? So pause the video and I'll see you in a second.

We hear a lot about addiction and when we talk about addiction, our first primary thought is alcohol, nicotine, smoking and drugs.

We tend not to think about things like, well, gambling, or shopping, or the internet, the use of the internet.

We can become addicted to pretty much anything because if we enjoy it and we crave it, and we want more of it, ultimately we become addicted to it.

And gambling is, unfortunately, exactly the same.

There are four main reasons why people gamble and these might help you understand how gambling can become addictive and why it's hard to stop.

In some cases, it's social reasons.

And as I said earlier, going to the horses or going to the dogs or going to any event, football, where you can place a bet with a group of friends becomes quite social.

And if that person has a bit of an issue, but they don't want to share it with their friends, they're going to continue to gamble and it's hard to break that habit.

So social reasons can be a reason why someone becomes addicted.

For financial reasons.

And we'll talk about this term chasing losses later on.

But for financial reasons, it may be that actually they're making a lot of money and as a result, they want to continue making that money.

For some people where gambling, for example a poker player, it is a professional pastime, but it's only a professional pastime, because A, they're very good at it, and B, they understand their losses and financial losses.

So what they will do is they will have an amount of money that they gamble with and they will make sure that at the end of the evening or the end of the season or however they determine over period of time is for them, they will make sure that they are always are above what they've gambled.

So they will make sure they always have what we call a profit.

Now we might hear that gambler, that professional poker player, that they made a million pounds in a year or they've won a million pounds in a year.

What that doesn't necessarily mean is that they have a million pounds worth of profit.

It may be that their stake, or their bet was 800,000 pounds.

In which case, their profit will be 200,000.

In some cases, it may be that they've only broken even.

And actually that they've bet a million and won a million and there is no profit.

But for many professional gamblers, they will make sure that they have a point where they will always try and make that profit.

However, for people who it isn't a profession and where it is an addiction, may find that actually they're losing more money than they've got.

And then actually they're spending their winnings quicker than they're getting in and that again is where gambling addiction becomes an issue.

For entertainment reasons, they may just simply enjoy it.

They may enjoy the entertainment of betting.

We talked about social reasons.

They might like to go to the bookies and talk to people.

They may be lonely and don't have many friends and actually going to the bookies is an opportunity to socialise.

But also going to the bookies or going to the casino could be classed as entertainment for them, and actually they're getting something from it.

Going to the football and betting on the football is classed as entertainment.

It might be that they're betting on, again, horse racing and then going live to an entertainment type show is something that's really appealing to them.

But because of that, they could end up with these addictive traits.

And as a result, it becoming a problem.

For coping reasons.

We talked and you may have talked about things like becoming addicted to drugs and alcohol because of a bereavement potentially, or something has happened earlier on in their life, which may be they need to use those substances to cope with those things.

And gambling is and can be classed as an escapism.

That they're escaping from some form of trauma, something that maybe has happened in their life.

They don't really want to think about, they don't want to talk about and gambling gives them that escapism.

And as a result, it helps them cope with whatever it is that's going on in their life.

For example, a bereavement.

So that's why people generally gamble, but also associated with those reasons can become the reasons why they then become addicted.

So let's look at a scenario then.

So the impact of gambling on David.

So David is 21 years old and started gambling for fun.

He had some early wins.

He has kept playing in the hope he will win again and again.

And he wants to experience those same good feelings.

What are your concerns then about David? Pause the video, write down your ideas and we'll see you in a second.

Fantastic.

I hope you've got some really good ideas there.

Now certainly from my point of view is that one, he started gambling reasonably early.

Yeah, a couple years after his 18th birthday and you know, he's done really well.

He had some really early wins.

And he really enjoyed the thrill of winning.

It sounds to me though because he wants that same experience and those same good feelings over and over again then actually has it now become more addictive that he's craving the thrill and he's chasing that thrill? My concerns would be at this stage that it's starting to take over his sort of every day life.

That maybe we could suggest that actually he's starting to think about more about gambling than maybe some of his other activities outside of gambling.

For example, his social life, his work, his relationships.

Are they suffering because of the need to gamble? That would be my concern.

We always hate when the fun stop, stop.

Is he losing the enjoyment of just gambling and chasing the thrill? That will be my concern.

So the impact of gambling can be on finances and on mental health.

Things like spending more money than they want on gambling.

If we go back to David, is he starting to do that? They may struggle to find money for bills because they're using their money instead to gamble expecting that big win that in many cases just does not arrive.

They may take out loans to cover potentially gambling debt.

Depends where they're gambling.

If they're gambling, hopefully, at a reputable company, they shouldn't hopefully get into that debt.

But if they're not, or they're gambling through a third party because maybe the gambling shops aren't allowing that person to gamble, they may be raking up a bit of debt.

That's going to have an impact, a really impact on their mental health.

Extreme emotions and mood swings.

If they've won and they've won big, they're going to be elated, but if they've lost a huge amount of money, they're going to be upset and they're going to be quite annoyed and that kind of feelings and those emotions and that going from elation to not, that big swing could have an impact on their relationships.

Feeling that gambling is the only thing they enjoy to the exclusion of other things, and we said that, didn't we, about David? That that's certainly one of our concerns is that is it no longer a fun pastime and it's more of a need to gamble.

Using gambling as a way to deal with other problems or emotions in life.

Like what we talked about that escapism.

Potentially difficulty sleeping.

Whether that's because of the worry about a financial debt or a gambling debt or the worry that they need to gamble the next day.

What they going to gamble on.

How they going to make some money.

Feeling depressed or anxious generally because potentially because of these issues with finances and that need to gamble.

And that could have ultimately lead to suicidal thoughts.

So there is help and advice out there.

And as we know with any addiction, providing the person seeks help and wants help they can get better.

These organisations' websites can provide further information.

So Be Gamble Aware, the NHS, and Gam Care are all services available online for people who need to seek either A, further advice and information and just want to gain more information about gambling in general or particular addiction related to gambling, but also for people to go and seek help about their gambling addiction.

So like I said, I've been Mr. Duffy.

I really hope you've enjoyed this lesson today.

I really hope you've learned something about why people gamble and understand gambling a little bit more than you did at the start.

If you'd like to, please share your work with us.

If you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Twitter.

Tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

Like I said, I've been Mr. Duffy.

I'm really glad you've joined me today, and I'll see you soon, goodbye.