You Decide NY

You Decide NY aims to empower youth to make educated decisions regarding their gambling behaviors, and to prepare communities to work together to prevent underage gambling and reduce youth access to gambling.

YOUDecideNY.org is the underage gambling prevention resource hub. At this website, a list of resources are available and tailored to meet the needs of  youth, parents and community influencers to learn about underage gambling and to steps they can take to prevent it in their families, schools and surrounding communities.

Prevent Underage Gambling with You Decide NY

There are a number of things that we can do in our own communities to help prevent underage gambling:

• Increase youth awareness that media messages are constructed using specific techniques to convey meaning and affect the viewer/listener’s beliefs and actions.
• Help youth understand the realities and potential negative consequences of gambling.
• Decrease youth exposure to gambling and gambling advertising at community events, school, etc.

You Decide NY provides a number of resources for youth, parents and communities who want to help in the effort to prevent underage gambling including:

• Informational materials such as palm cards, brochures and posters.
• Facts about gambling and gambling addiction.
• News and research surrounding underage gambling.

Problem Gambling and Adolescents

More than any other age group, adolescents are at the greatest risk for developing gambling problems. In the teenage years, our brains are undergoing a massive amount of change and development. It isn’t until around the age of 25 that the brain reaches maturity. The last part of the brain to fully develop is the prefrontal cortex, which is the area responsible for decision making and critical thinking.

While still developing, the adolescent brain is being bombarded with a number of mixed messages about what is good and bad for them, as well as what activities they should and shouldn’t participate. They receive thousands of messages every day from their family, peers, community and the media.

Research on Teenagers and Gambling

Korn et al (2005), worked with youth focus groups to examine the possible impacts of gambling advertising on youth knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and gambling behaviors. The youth involved expressed that a general theme of the gambling advertisements they were presented with portrayed gambling as generally harmless.

In reality, youth gambling can cause a number of negative consequences: dropping grades, broken relationships with family, loss of trust, and an increased risk of developing a gambling disorder and other addictions.

Video Resources

Whether you’re a youth, parent, or community influencer, we welcome you to browse our youth gambling prevention video library. From examples of how youth can identify gambling problems and seek or offer help through relationships, conversation starters for parents, or learning the affects of youth gambling on families and communities, we have a video for you. – Videos – You Decide NY | YOU Decide NY