Some students around school participate in sports betting. Teenagers gambling have many negative impacts such as ruined relationships, poor financial habits and a future in gambling addiction. Below are quotes sharing students’ experiences with betting apps and websites. All students requested to remain anonymous to protect themselves from potential legal consequences. Quotes have been edited for length and clarity.

Chasing losses

So I do tend to make a parlay, which is a bunch of different bets all in one, and it’s cumulated odds. You have to hit every single bet to win money from the parlay. And I’ll make parlays a lot of times and only be one bet away from winning, so I’ll lose money because of one smaller bet that loses.

Realizing addiction

My parents knew I bet, but they didn’t know how often I do it or how much money I bet. So when they found out how much money I was betting, making and losing, I had a sit-down talk with them, and they made me realize I’m really addicted.

Counting bets

My dad and I like to keep track of how we’re doing. So I have a spreadsheet of how much we bet that week, our total winnings and how much money we have left in the betting account. And then, at the bottom, we have the average amount of money we bet each week and the total we’ve bet overall, and our average winnings and our total winnings.

Taking risks

When I first started to bet and I started chasing my losses, I bet like 150 bucks on this random NBA player on a random bet and it wasn’t even close to hitting, and I was like, ‘Dude, what am I doing?’ It was pretty bad.

Feeling pressure

I’ve thought about deleting the app multiple times. I kind of don’t want to be involved with it because I’ve seen what it does to some of my friends, and I don’t really like that.

Resources 

The help hotline is available at 1-800-662-4357 for free, anonymous support from the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration. The Nation Problem Gambling Helpline is available at 1-800-426-2537, text at 800426 or chat at www.1800gamblerchat.org. Gambler’s Anonymous Open Meetings are held in Buffalo Grove on Fridays from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Buffalo Grove Youth Building at 50 1/2 Raupp Blvd.