It has been reported that more and more teenagers are involved in gambling in our city. What will be the negative impact if the trend prevails and what should be done to turn the situation around? Write a letter to the editor to voice your views.
Teens gambling must be tackled
Dear Editor,
I am writing to express my dearest concern about the phenomenon of teens gambling in our city. Nowadays, more and more adolescents are involved in gambling. It is worrying to see that our future pillars are led astray by this detrimental activity. Undoubtedly, the adverse effects brought by gambling should never be overlooked.
First and foremost, teens’ mental health will be severely affected by gambling. A recent research shows that 80% of gambling teens have experienced symptoms like muscle strain and palm sweating especially when playing exciting games like lottery. Youngsters always feel anxious and eager to win the game. If they fail, they may feel angry. This frequent mood swing under the stressful environment causes damage to nervous systems and as a result, many of them will have emotional illness like Manic Depression. This will only make them unable to communicate with others and eventually, worsen their relationship with their friends and family.
Moreover, gambling will mislead the teens to develop wrong life values, thus destroying their future and even our society. Through gambling, teenagers may easily earn money without making any effort. This might lessen their motivation to study hard. Furthermore, they may think that earning money is very easy and therefore keep spending time on it. These actions will only further weaken their life-skills and academic performance, forming a vicious cycle which negatively affects their future. Owing to the fact that teenagers are our future workforce, such kind of mentality will also threaten the whole economic development of our society.
The pressing issue of gambling has already rung an alarm for the city. This is not only the matter of individuals but the whole society. Therefore, something must be done to turn the situation around.
First of all, any materials promoting gambling should be strictly prohibited in both real life and the virtual world. There is a mounting need to tighten the limitation on the advertisements, preventing them from promoting the way to make great fortune overnight. Furthermore, any analysis on football gambling and horse racing should also be separated from the main posts of the newspaper. For instance, the government could set an age limit for buying the gambling materials. Most importantly, more stringent checks should be imposed on some virtual games like Texas poke on Facebook, which promote gambling by encouraging teenagers to bet the virtual coins. In fact, in China and Korea, search engines will remove key terms related to gambling. Through proper filtering, it is believed that our teenagers will not be misled so easily.
What’s more, education from both school and family is very important. The schools could hold more seminars and talks by inviting experts or people who have suffered addiction in gambling. They can share the negative impacts associated with gambling. Cooperation between teachers and social workers will help to figure out problematic students too. For example, after joining workshop about the signs of gambling teens, teachers will be able to identify them and take corresponding actions. At home, parents should be the role model and avoid any kind of gambling in front of their children. Instead, they can do some healthy activities with their kids such as hiking or playing chess. By doing so, a positive mindset can be instilled in our teenagers so as to prevent them from gambling.
All in all, gambling among youngsters is not an uncommon problem in our city. Undoubtedly, if we still turn a deaf ear to it, our teenagers and even the whole society will be hit hard. It is high time we addressed the issue through concerted efforts.
Yours faithfully,
Ivan Yiu
Ivan Yiu
Ivan Yiu Wing Fung
6E 2015-16