Journal of Adolescence 1996, 19, 183–188

Brief Report

Adolescent machine gambling and crime

TIM YEOMAN AND MARK GRIFFITHS

There is growing evidence that children and adolescents who gamble excessivelyon fruit machines may engage themselves in stealing and commit other criminaloffences to fund their habit yet there has been little evidence from the legal pro-fessions themselves. The aim of the survey conducted was to see if there was anyrelationship between criminal activity (most notably theft) and gaming machineuse. During a 1-year period, police officers in Plymouth (South West England)collected information from 1851 juvenile offenders with whom they came intocontact. The results revealed approximately 4% of juvenile crime was associatedwith gaming machine use and the survey offers evidence that a minority of indi-viduals commit crimes in order to supplement their fruit machine playing.

1996 The Association for Professionals in Services for Adolescents

Introduction

At present in the U.K. there are many legal restrictions to prevent children and adolescentsparticipating in gambling activities. For instance, gambling in a casino or making a bet in abookmaker’s shop is restricted to those over 18 years of age and buying a National Lotteryticket is restricted to those over 16 years of age. However, despite such legislation, there areno legal restrictions on children and adolescents gambling on fruit machines. Further tothis, there is now considerable evidence that this form of gambling is a problem to aminority of adolescents and that such individuals display behaviour that is pathological(e.g. Griffiths, 1990; Fisher, 1993). There is also growing evidence that children andadolescents who gamble excessively on fruit machines may engage themselves in stealingand commit other criminal offences to fund their habit (Barham, 1987; SpectrumChildren’s Trust, 1988; Griffiths, 1990; Huxley and Carroll, 1992; Fisher, 1993) andretrospective evidence (e.g. Griffiths, 1993) indicates that some of these individuals end upcoming to the attention of the police and the law courts.

Despite the evidence of socially unacceptable behaviour to fund fruit machine gamblingthere has been little evidence from the police and legal professions themselves. There islittle evidence as to how much juvenile crime is associated with (or indeed caused by)gaming machines. The aim of the survey conducted (and reported below) was to see if there

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0140-1971/96/020183+06/$18.00/0 1996 The Association for Professionals in Services for Adolescents

184 T. Yeoman and M. Griffiths

was any relationship between criminal activity (most notably theft) and gaming machineuse. The objectives and methodology employed are outlined in the next section.

Method

ProcedureThe survey was undertaken in Plymouth (South West England) by police officers dealingwith juveniles when they first came to notice. It is standard practice within the Devon andCornwall Constabulary to fill out a Juvenile Form which records the details of the juvenilesand their families, the circumstances of the case and other additional information affectingthe child, the family or other factors giving cause for concern. On the same forminformation was sought ascertaining the adolescent gambling problem. In the case of theftwith nothing to show for it, the playing of machines may be suspect. However, in the caseof missing person reports, criminal damage and/or domestic disputes, police officers wereasked to probe more than they had done in the past to confirm there was no associationwith machine use. This process provided little in the way of extra paperwork for the policeofficers.

Data collectedDuring the survey, 1851 Juvenile Forms were collected within a 1-year period. Of these,1363 involved crime, 233 involved missing persons and a further 255 were miscellanous(e.g. criminal damage). In relation to the forms involving crime, 933 were submitted wherethe offender gained or intended to gain some monetary advantage (theft, burglary, fraud,robbery, etc.). The information collected was further broken down into gender and age,type of main offence committed, the family structure, school type, and whether theindividual was a first time offender. Although the information collected was via theoffender’s self-report, it was always verified—usually through confirmation from theoffender’s family or from further police investigation.

Results

Of the 1851 forms, 72 cases (3.9%) were identified as having some association between theoffence recorded and machine playing. Of the 72 juveniles, 67 were male (age range: 8- to16-years-old) and five were female (age range: 13- to 16-years-old). A full breakdown ofmean ages, schooling, family background and types of offence are outlined in Table 1. Ofthe 72 cases, 62 of them (86%) involved theft or burglary, five of them (7%) involvedmissing persons, four of them involved criminal damage (5.5%) and there was one case of adomestic dispute. The number of first time offenders (n=27) accounted for 37.5% of thecases.

Although it is not practical to outline every single one of the 72 cases, a few of the casesare abbreviated below to give the reader some insight to the data collected. The cases arenot unusual and are outlined to show that (i) the consequences can be just as serious forfemales as males, (ii) that criminal activities other than theft may be involved (e.g. missingperson report), (iii) family background is not always bad and (iv) those involved are fairlyyoung adolescents.

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Case 1Sex: Female (16-years-old).Family details: Lives with mother and father.Circumstances: Has been stealing from parents over 4 months and amounts to about £200.Been truanting from school and may have a drug problem. Has been hanging round arcades.Then demanded £10 and family allowance book. She also knocked out her mother whenshe asked for the return of some of the money.How verified: Family involvement.Previous police attention: None—first time offender.Comments: Parents have withheld their problems in the belief it would avoid criminalproceedings.

Case 2Sex: Male (15-years-old).Family details: Lives with mother, father deceased.Circumstances: Forced the lock of the electricity meter and took £75 from his house. Thenput the money into the machines at the city centre gaming arcade.How verified: Police investigation.Previous police attention: A caution for theft.

Table 1 Summary of demographic information and offences of juveniles (n=72) whose criminaloffence was associated with machine playing

Males Females Total

General informationSample breakdown 67 5 72Mean age (years) 13.7 15.0 13.8

Family backgroundLive with both natural parents 22 3 25Live with parent and step-parent 14 1 15Live with one parent 20 0 20Live with grandparents 3 0 3Not established (unknown) 8 1 9

SchoolingComprehensive/Secondary school 54 2 56Special school 6 0 6Primary school 2 0 2Home Tutor 2 0 2Not at school (e.g. unemployed) 2 2 4Not established (unknown) 1 1 2

Type of offenceTheft/Burglary 58 4 62Missing persons 4 1 5Criminal damage 4 0 4Domestic dispute 1 0 1

First time offenders 23 4 27

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Case 3Sex: Male (14-years-old).Family details: Lives with mother, father and brother. Home conditions excellent.Circumstances: Burglary with two juveniles and an adult where property was stolen from amail box. He was involved in school burglaries and handling stolen property.How verified: Police investigation, personal contact with offender and family.Previous police attention: Three cautions and a court appearance.Comments: Family indicate theft from home over 2.5 years both of their property and sellingof his clothes—in excess of £150—to play fruit machines.

Case 4Sex: Female (14-years-old).Family details: Lives with mother and step-father. Suffers lack of supervision. Familyviolence when mother and father drink heavily.Circumstances: Missing person. Left home because of heavy drinking by family and ensuingviolence. Spends all day at the arcades and some nights. As a result has been involved intheft and handling.How verified: Police investigation.Previous police attention: A caution for theft.Comments: Sadly this girl is getting deeper into crime and public order offences.

Case 5Sex: Male (15-years-old).Family details: Lives with grandmother and her son. Is out of control.Circumstances: Police called in by widowed grandmother who has looked after him sincebirth. Has been stealing money from her purse and pension money over a period of time. Hehas used this money mainly at the city arcades on fruit machines.How verified: Police investigation and family involvement.Previous police attention: Four cautions for theft and burglary.Comments: Police investigation with the boy reveals more than average use of fruitmachines and that others more junior to him are doing the same.

Discussion

To put the findings of this survey into perspective it has to be realized that there are over20,000 adolescents in Plymouth aged 10 to 17 years of age who could potentially commit acrime. However, it is probably fair to assume that a vast majority (a) do not commit crimesand (b) do not engage in regular gaming machine use. Therefore it can be concluded thatthe vast majority of adolescents do not need to commit crimes to fund their gamingmachine behaviour. The survey revealed approximately 4% of juvenile crime was associatedwith gaming machine use and offers some limited evidence that a minority of individualscommit crimes in order to “feed their addiction”. It should also be acknowledged that thecases outlined in this survey are those that actually get to a stage where the police areinvolved. It is quite possible—and indeed probable—that there are many other instances ofcrime related to machine use that either does not get reported or that blame is attached

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elsewhere (e.g. a drug problem). Many parents may be able to cope financially with theirchild’s stealing problem or have such a strong parental response that the problem is noteven acknowledged, and that only those who find the pressure too much, or who dosomething to attract attention, are those who come to the attention of the police.

The survey’s limited family background details tended to suggest that in the majority,juveniles involved with heavy gaming machine use came from families who were lessfortunate, who were strained in the family relationships and who could ill afford to supportan adolescent in this form of activity. Impressionistically, the majority of the 72 juveniles inthis survey could ill afford to play gaming machines and by doing so they not only stretchedthe family finances but also the parental relationships. There were many instances in thefamily structures of the juveniles which suggested either (i) the family had been split in thepast, (ii) the relationship was not as solid with step-parents as could be expected comparedwith an adolescent’s natural parents, and/or (iii) the parent had been widowed or waselderly and therefore found control of the adolescent hard to achieve. Another worryingaspect of the survey were the numbers of first time offenders with over one-third of thesample indicating that this was the first crime they had been involved in. Although theadolescents may have been influenced by others it would be even more worrying if theywere all doing it with the primary purpose of funding their gaming machine habit.

One important shortcoming in this survey was the problem in differentiating betweenthose individuals who stole in order to play the machines and those children who stole andsubsequently used the money to play on the machines. The first scenario implies some kindof dependency with the individual stealing directly to fund their playing whereas the secondscenario implies using the proceeds to play the machines but not being predetermined andplaying the machines as an afterthought. The information collected in the survey does littleto help in solving such a problem. Another problem with the survey was that it wassometimes difficult to separate out the use of fruit machines and video game machines andthat some of the criminal behaviour reported was due to video game playing rather thanfruit machine gambling. However, a growing number of authors have identified the links,commonalities and relationships between slot machines and video game machines (e.g.Griffiths, 1991; Fisher, 1994; Fisher and Griffiths, 1995) and as such, commonalitiesbetween these two behaviours in relation to criminal activity strengthens such arguments.

Surveys such as this which were carried out in just one small area of the countryhighlight the need for similar types of surveys to take place elsewhere and for replicationand confirmation of the results found. Although the findings here are far from anecdotalthey also highlight the need for a greater depth of information to be gathered as there arestill a number of unanswered questions like the ones posed above. It is hoped that studiessuch as this will raise awareness of problem gambling being a factor in juvenile crime amongother police forces in the U.K. and that further research is stimulated in an area of littleempirical data.

References

Barham, R. (1987). Teenage Use of Amusement Arcades in Bognor Regis. Bognor Regis: WSIHE.Fisher, S. (1993). Gambling and pathological gambling in adolescents. Journal of Gambling Studies, 8,

263–285.Fisher, S. (1994). Identifying video game addiction in children and adolescents. Addictive Behaviors,

19, 545–555.

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Fisher, S. and Griffiths, M.D. (1995). Current trends in slot machine gambling: Research and policyissues. Journal of Gambling Studies, 11, 239–247.

Griffiths, M.D. (1990). The acquisition, development and maintenance of fruit machine gambling inadolescents. Journal of Gambling Studies, 6, 193–204.

Griffiths, M.D. (1991). Amusement machine playing in childhood and adolescence: a comparativeanalysis of video games and fruit machines. Journal of Adolescence, 14, 53–73.

Griffiths, M.D, (1993). Factors in problem adolescent fruit machine gambling: results of a small postalsurvey. Journal of Gambling Studies, 9, 31–45.

Huxley, J. and Carroll, D. (1992). A survey of fruit machine gambling in adolescents. Journal ofGambling Studies, 8, 167–179.

Spectrum Children’s Trust (1988). Slot Machine Playing in Children: Results of a survey in Taunton andMinehead. London: Author.