We watch Super Bowl advertisements, with our kids nearby and sometimes a beer in our hands, with the easiness we used to shout “tastes great” or “less filling” at the old Miller Lite ads.
It can be a lesson in osmosis.
“If you pull aside a handful of teenagers and say, ‘What do you think of when you think of the Super Bowl, they’re going to say, ‘Bud Light,’ ” says Megan Moreno, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin’s School of Public Health who specializes in adolescent care.
In recent years, sporting events have also featured commercials that offer something that can be right at kids’ fingertips. Ads for online betting don’t make indirect suggestions to try them. Instead, they’re full of invitations and offers of credits from familiar faces who, Moreno says, try to link gambling with what they’re watching.
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“I have teenagers,” says Moreno, who works closely with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). “It’s not like they’re coming running to you asking to watch ‘Frozen,’ which is a blessing and a curse. There’s just not a lot of content that’s enjoyable to sit down and watch together. Sports can play a really important role in having something in common and something to bond over. But it’s also pretty tricky.”
Especially when parents bet on games (or drink alcohol) themselves. We don’t necessarily think of watching commercials as teaching moments, but one of the biggest betting days of the year creates an opportunity for one.
“It’s so interwoven and present now that I think, whether or not parents choose to engage in it, it probably means parents need to have a conversation with whatever child is watching,” Moreno says, “and say, ‘This is what it means to gamble. And here’s what you want to be careful about if you decide to do this when you get older.’ ”
Moreno, the co-medical director of the AAP’s Center of Excellence on Social Media and Youth Mental Health, offers ways we can make the exchange engaging and interactive, like watching the commercials themselves.
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A 2018 Supreme Court decision struck down a federal law banning sports betting in most states. Today, mobile betting is legal in 30 states and celebrities like Jamie Foxx, Drake, Nicki Minaj and Conor McGregor promote online betting that is just a few taps away on a phone.
“You hear kids talking about it, which I think is just really different than in the past,” Moreno says. “You had to go somewhere to gamble, and it was kind of secret. Now you can gamble during a game on an app on your phone.’
“That’s what we’re hearing,” Moreno says. “Or a parent will set up an account and kind of let the kid use it, and then sometimes the kid uses it without asking.”
Sixty-nine percent of parents in the poll reported their teen has a bank account, debit card and/or credit card in their own name.
“We’re seeing kids doing more app based games, where they’re used to putting money in,’ Moreno says. ‘It’s become really normative for kids to buy in-app purchases and use money, and sometimes those are tied to games of chance within the gaming app. This is not true gambling, but this is like a warmup.”
Teens engage heavily among the estimated 62.5 million who play fantasy sports in the USA and Canada. If you play fantasy, you know that even if you put in just a little money, it’s easy allow your mood to rise and fall with the statistics of your players.
“You feel like you’ve got a stake in it,” Moreno says of fantasy sports, but also online gambling in general. “And I think adults can do a good job of kind of separating themselves through that enough to function during the day.
“But for teens at such a vulnerable age where they’re really seeking things that will connect to them and that will help them build their identity. I think that’s the other piece that worries me about teens getting super engaged in this: It’s just so much harder for them to disentangle because that that identity fully developed.”
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What we can do to help our kids understand online gambling
Let them distinguish what they’re watching: According to Michigan’s Mott poll, just one in four parents of children ages 14-18 had spoken with them about online gambling.
Start the discussion by putting your child at peer level, something we probably don’t do enough in his age of overprotecting – if not coddling – kids.
Hit that pause button during the game if you see a gambling ad. Ask your son or daughter to describe what they are watching.
Here’s how Moreno suggests the back-and-fourth-might go:
These are some of the most elite athletes in the world that are taking really good care of themselves. But look at the ads we’re seeing. What are those ads telling us to do? What are they trying to sell you, and how does that line up with what we’re watching?
“I have found adolescents really love those conversations,” she says. “They love thinking about what’s ‘the man’ trying to get me to do? It’s an opportunity to have those conversations in kind of a fun way.”
Create real-life scenarios: Once the game is over, find time to talk through not just the idea of placing a bet, but how it might look like for both of you if you lost.
I know you love the Chiefs. Let’s say you wanted to put $5 down because you were really excited they might win, and then they lost. What if it was $5 but you were doing it every week, and that’s your whole allowance?
How would you feel if it was $50?
How would it feel if I put down $500 and now we don’t have enough money to go on that camping trip?
Playing fantasy sports with your kids, and having them experience what it’s like to lose money from them, can work the same way.
“Take the excitement that we know can come from gambling, but tying it to those real world consequences,” Moreno says.
Be transparent about your own habits: According to the Michigan Mott’s poll, 31% of parents say that they or another adult in their household participate in online, in-person, or social betting.
If a teen sees you engaging with it while you are watching the game together, it becomes part of their impression of what’s normal.
‘You want to be careful with how much you’re exposing them to it,’ Moreno says. ‘But I think you also want to pair that with having some really honest communication with it.’
Here is what you might say:
I struggle with this: Here’s what I’m worried about for you.
How are we going to figure out a way to navigate this together?
How are we going to know when it’s a problem and what’s our plan if it’s a problem?
“I think the more a parent can be real, the greater likelihood is the kid’s gonna say, ‘I’m not doing that,’ ” Moreno says. “And it also takes away the forbidden fruit piece. Or that the kid will say, ‘Hey, I’ll try this, and if it’s a problem now we have a plan.’ ”
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Why it’s never too late to talk about online gambling with your kid
They include: restricting betting after a certain amount is lost, offering a “parent view” option to monitor online betting accounts, verifying legal age with photo identification to open the account and limiting the amount of money that can be bet within a certain timeframe.
“I think sometimes parents will think, ‘Oh, gosh. I never had this conversation when they were younger, but now they’re older, and they’re talking to me or I see the apps on their phone. Is it too late for me to have that conversation?’ ‘ Moreno says. ‘No, it’s absolutely not too late to have that conversation.”
If your child has already tried gambling, it becomes another layer of your discussion. As we know, parenting is often about turning an unexpected twist into something productive.
“It’s not that you want to shame anyone,’ Moreno says. ‘Instead it’s that, ‘How do you want to talk about it in a way so that kids have the information that you want to give them.’ ”
Steve Borelli, aka Coach Steve, has been an editor and writer with USA TODAY since 1999. He spent 10 years coaching his two sons’ baseball and basketball teams. He and his wife, Colleen, are now sports parents for two high schoolers. His column is posted weekly. For his past columns, click here.
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