The prevention of gambling with monetary bets in young people. A review of the current situation

The growing availability in Spain of money betting, both online and in person, has raised public alarm about the possible harmful effects it may have on the youth population. This situation is practically coetaneous with the incorporation of Pathological Gambling within Addictive Disorders in the DSM 5, the growing concern about the effects of this activity on young people around the world and with the implementation, through the National Plan on Drugs and the ESTUDES survey, of a mechanism for epidemiological surveillance of the prevalence of the problem in the school population aged 14 to 18. This presentation will be divided into four sections: 1) Extent and nature of the problem in the world and in Spain; 2) Specific and general risk and protection factors; 3) Review of the types and modes of prevention and their effects; and 4) Proposals for action at the various preventive levels. Specifically, among other topics, the nature and consistency of the epidemiological information that provides information on the type and extent of problematic and pathological behaviour, in accordance with the instruments and procedures available, will be addressed. The specific factors that promote youth experimentation with gambling will be analyzed, as well as those common to other types of addictions and externalizing behaviours. We will review the different specific and general interventions used in children and young people, as well as their results. Finally, in the light of the conditions in which these interventions are applied and the results obtained, a series of proposals will be extracted that allow us to face the problem based on empirical evidence.

José Ramón Fernández has been professor of the Faculty of Psychology of the University of Oviedo from 1993 to the present. He has taught or teaches the subjects of Clinical Evaluation, General Psychopathology and Prevention of Behavioural Disorders. He is a specialist in Clinical Psychology and has been a Clinical Psychologist in the Mental Health Services of the Principality of Asturias from 1979 to 1993. He has been uninterruptedly President of the Northern Delegation, the Delegation of Asturias and the Official College of Psychologists of the Principality of Asturias since its foundation in 1980 until January 25, 2006. He has been a member of the Governing Board of the Official College of Psychologists and of the General Council of Official Colleges of Psychologists from 1993 to the present. As a researcher, he has focused especially on the field of drug addictions. He is the author or co-author of more than 120 works published in national and international journals, 40 books and book chapters and more than 150 communications or conferences in national and international congresses. He has participated in 29 R&D projects and research contracts, being Principal Investigator in 17 of them. He is a member of the governing bodies of several journals: Psicothema, Papeles del Psicólogo and Director of Infocop. He has received distinctions from the Official Colleges of Psychologists of Eastern Andalusia, Murcia and Valencia, Asturias and Madrid. In addition, he has been awarded the following prizes: X National Award of TEA (TEA Ediciones) of the year 2005, Award to the best professor of Psychology granted in 2012 by the State Association of Students of Psychology (CEP-PIE) and Iberian Award of Psychology 2015 granted by the General Council of Colleges of Psychology of Spain and the Ordem dos Psicologos Portugueses.