Candy Crush Saga Is Turning Kids Into Wild-Eyed Gambling Addicts

According to some Concerned Experts, the ubiquity of online games with easy-to-circumvent age limits is giving children adorable widdle gambling problems. They grow up so fast!

A combination of the internet, smartphones, and tablets give modern parents who are too exhausted to do anything with or for their children besides tell them to go play with a screen for awhile allow children an even earlier foray into the sad world of compulsive gambling. It makes sense that easy access to the instant gratification positive feedback loop of games like free online poker and Candy Crush Saga and other games that deal in some form of game-based currency would set more kids up for problems with compulsive behavior, but now, researchers have proof, according to the Telegraph.

Of 2,700 high school students surveyed, 15% had played games involving free gambling in the previous week. And because previous research has linked the playing of “free” gambling games to the playing of “not free” gambling games and the “losing of the car” that might ensue, researchers are worried that this might be a harbinger of future gambling problems in the generation currently coming of age. According to an organization called Gamble Aware, 2% of kids between 11 and 15 already have serious problems with gambling.

Experts suggest that one way to head this off at the pass would be to actually talk to The Children about problem gambling, but given how little people seem to like talking to The Children about anything, I wouldn’t hold my breath.