According to the Executive director of Wisconsin Council on Problem Gambling there has been a large increase of teenage gambling in recent years.

According to her its not just casino gambling, but online casinos and poker tournaments like Texas Holdem that in recent years has become a popular game to watch on Television.

Here are some helpful tips on how to recognize someone with a gambling problem:

• If someone you know is borrowing money from friends and family this may be a sign of a gambling problem.
• Selling their personal belonging because they need extra money.
• Constantly lies and steals, especially from friends and family.
• Goes thru times in large debt and can sometime have large sums of unexplained money.
• Receiving lots of strange cryptic sounding phone calls at all hours of the day.
• Making lots of calls to 900 gambling numbers.
• If someone you know has many unexplained absences from school or work.
• Always seems to be moody, distracted, anxious or depressed.
• Seems fanatical to find out the sports scores.
Has recently stops associating with long time friends, social groups or after school activities.

If your teen child or someone else you know displays several or all these symptoms, then there is a good chance they have a serious gambling problem and require help immediately.