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BEHAVIOR * The latest peril for America's troubled teenagers is the lure of scoring big in lotteries and casino halls

Just as teenagers are beginning to show signs of curtailing risky sex, illicit drug use and drunk driving, another potentially destructive behavior-gambling-is threatening to become the teen vice of the 90S. It is often treated by adults as more benign than those other adolescent activities, but the financial and psychological toll from compulsive wagering can be at least as severe. Gambling has been growing in legitimacy among adults as cash-hungry state governments have increasingly turned to lotteries, casinos and other betting. But new research points up the dangers this development poses to young people. Loma Linda University psychologist Durand Jacobs and his collaborators surveyed 2,700 high-school students in New Jersey, Virginia, California and Connecticut and the results, published last year, were disturbing: About half the students gambled at least once a year; 13 percent financed their gambling with crimes, and 5 percent were classified as pathological gamblers, using American Psychiatric Association criteria that included such problems as getting arrested for money-raising schemes and defaulting on debts. That 5 percent is dramatically higher than the 1.5 percent of adults who, according to National Institute of Mental Health studies, are compulsive gamblers. The most popular forms of gambling among teenagers include betting on sports, cardplaying, lotteries and slot machines. Indeed, the accessibility of betting venues has a demonstrable effect on teen gambling rates. "The more available gambling is, the more kids will get into trouble with it," says psychologist Michael Frank of New Jersey's Stockton State College, near Atlantic City. Frank found that about 40 percent of the under-21 students on his campus wagered illegally in nearby casinos. High rolling. One student of teen gambling, sociologist Henry Lesieur of St. John's University in New York, likens it to youthful drug and alcohol experimentation. But there is no agreement among experts-and little data-on whether compulsive teen gamblers will continue their behavior as adults. What is unquestioned is that, for many of the country's estimated 1 million troubled young gamblers, what starts as a seemingly harmless thrill soon turns ugly.

Michael, now 23, started simply enough in his hometown of Boston, playing cards with friends for money. But soon he was stealing money from his mother's purse to keep up, and by the time he was 16, after years of sports betting, he discovered Atlantic City. He began playing illegally for ever higher stakes, over time running up debts of more than 100,000 while the casinos courted him with free rooms, alcohol and other perks. He was arrested two years ago for embezzlement and for stealing a woman's purse. His efforts at recovery, including joining Gamblers Anonymous, have crumbled in recent weeks as he has gone on gambling "benders" and been fired from his latest job.

For teen and other problem gamblers, betting fever may lead to serious crimes as well as self-destruction. In Dallas last year, several members of the state-championship high-school football team and their friends received stiff sentences for a wave of armed robberies that were spurred in part by debts from school based dice games.

Even more tempting for teenagers than such informal wagering is the lure of casino gambling. Perhaps the most celebrated case involves Debra Kim Cohen, a 15-year-old who became a preferred customer at several Atlantic City resorts and over several years spent more than 5,000 of her own and her family's money. The girl received complimentary meals, rooms and concert tickets-and continued to be admitted to the casinos even after her father, Leonard Cohen, an Atlantic City detective, sent letters and pictures to the casinos asking that she be barred as a minor. A fed-up Leonard Cohen spurred the state to file civil charges in 1987 against five casinos, which later agreed to contribute 180,000 to mental health clinics. Debra Kim Cohen was also convicted for underage gambling, and her father is still angry at the casinos: "It's not the environment you want your kid in. How much notice did I have to give those damn people?"

For their part, casino officials argue that they do as vigorous a job as possible screening underage gamblers. For instance, they note that 230,000 minors were denied entrance to casinos last year, and 25,000 were ejected. In the Cohen case, Caesars Atlantic City executives argue that she made a determined effort to disguise herself and that she looked older than 2 1. Says Al Cade, Caesars'director of government relations, "There's no ironclad way to deny entry."

So far, little has been done to prevent or treat teen gambling. Rarely do teenagers seek counseling, and only a few states, including Iowa, Minnesota and Massachusetts, have even modest education efforts targeted at teens. Even where counseling is available, the prospects for reductions in problem gambling among teens are quite dim. The social and personal factors that cause compulsive gambling, such as widespread materialism and unstable families, continue unabated. And the teens with the worst gambling problems also abuse drugs and alcohol at a rate up to 2.5 times higher than their peers, according to one survey. So as society increasingly frowns on substance abuse while promoting legalized gambling, betting remains one of the few "legitimate" thrills for kids. As Durand Jacobs notes, "What's left for excitement?" n

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