Richard Levi
Professor Ding
ENG 2150
4/15/2023
Teen Gambling
Teenagers are more susceptible to gambling addiction than adults. Their brains are still developing and are geared more toward risk-taking and the feeling of invincibility. That is why parents and teens need to understand the long-lasting implications gambling can have. As technology has advanced, gambling has become easily accessible to anyone with access to the internet. Although the Government has placed restrictions on online gambling, they are not hard to circumvent. This and other reasons, such as peer pressure and depression, are why increasingly more adolescents have gambled and experienced issues from it. The authors of two articles, “Adolescent Gambling: Research and Clinical Implications” by Mary Wilber and Marc Potenza and “Turning Points: Gambling Ensnares More Teens” by Clare Ansberry, use similar rhetorical devices to achieve different outcomes. Three rhetorical devices used in both articles to highlight the issues of teen gambling are ethos, audience, and logos.
The first article by Mary Wilber and Marc Potenza focuses on the developmental side of teenage gambling. A clinical study shows that teens are prone to risky behavior and have a decreased sense of risk aversion, as shown in the quote, “appears to involve increased sensitivity of reward circuitry involving the nucleus accumbens and related brain regions, decreased harm avoidance involving the amygdala” (Wilber and Potenza). Adolescents’ primary motivation for gambling is the desire to socialize with others. Gambling at a young age also increases the risk of substance abuse in the future. Some ways to prevent gambling among teens are by informing them of the facts and increasing regulations (Wilber and Potenza).
The second article by Clare Ansberry focuses on teen gambling in young men and how gambling is present in video games. In video games, there are in-app purchases that allow people to buy loot boxes that give you a chance at getting rare items. This can be considered another form of gambling, as the quote states, “He would keep paying to spin again and again, a behavior that he says became compulsive and continued into other games” (Ansberry). The article also mentions that gambling among youths has nearly doubled since 2018. Ansberry has also interviewed many reputable people, such as psychologists, who say that the number of patients coming to them has been increasing (Ansberry).
To build trust with the reader, the authors use the rhetorical device of ethos in both articles. In Mary and Marc’s article, they mention that Marc is the director of the problem gambling center at Yale University, shown in the quote, “Dr. Potenza is Director, Problem Gambling Clinic, Director, Women and Addictions Core of Women’s Health Research at Yale” (Wilber and Potenza). This automatically makes the author trustworthy because they know that the author works at one of the top universities in the world. In Clare’s article, she uses ethos when she brings in professionals’ opinions, as seen in the quote, “Jesse Suh, a clinical psychologist in Philadelphia, says more male college students are coming in for treatment, often at the insistence of parents” (Ansberry). While differing in approach, both articles make use of ethos by being written by a professional or bringing in a professional opinion to make the reader trust them.
Both articles target a specific audience by where they were published and who it was written for. Clare’s article was published in The Wall Street Journal, which is more geared toward adults, many of whom are parents. In her article, she warns parents that kids with gambling addictions often start as being addicted to video games (Ansberry). Mary and Marc’s article is placed in a scientific database, which targets researchers, doctors, and professionals. Additionally, their article talks about case studies, prevention, and treatment, directly targeting professionals working with teenage gamblers. In both articles, the Authors use the rhetorical device of audience to target different people.
To support their claims, both articles use facts to connect to the audience’s reason, which is an example of the rhetorical device logos. Mary and Marc’s article uses facts from clinical studies to back up their claims. The quote, “Estimates of problem gambling or pathological gambling range between two and four times higher than the adult population” (Wilber and Potenza), connects to a reader’s logos and makes them trust the article. Another quote, “For example, up to 25 percent of adolescents with serious gambling problems report using online gambling practice sites,” is used to show the reader how accessible online gambling is. Clare’s article uses facts from surveys to back up claims in her article. She mentions how adolescent males having gambling problems nearly doubled in the quote “males experiencing gambling problems, such as lying about how much they lost, or being unable to control their gambling, rose to 8.3% in 2022 from 4.2% in 2018” (Ansberry). This quote connects to the reader’s logos since it shows the reader that gambling is a growing issue among adolescents using facts. While both articles use the rhetorical device of logos, Mary and Marc’s uses facts from many clinical studies, while Clare’s uses facts from surveys. This might make Mary and Marc’s seem more reliable since clinical studies are more accurate.
Although both articles use similar rhetorical devices such as ethos, audience, and logos, each one applies them differently. The devices are used to make the articles trustworthy and draw the reader in. One difference in the application of the rhetorical device of audience is where the paper is placed. Different placements, such as newspapers, databases, and blogs, reach other people. This shows that even though authors may use the same devices, the outcome can differ.
Works Cited
Ansberry, Clare. “Turning Points: Gambling Ensnares More Teens — Often-impulsive young men are drawn in as sports betting grows, lines blur with videogaming.” Proquest, 20 December 2022, https://www.proquest.com/docview/2755727319?accountid=8500&parentSessionId=h3G0nNNh%2B3nWiI9LjrOm95G0yPazqEG%2BXjSO5mzVMlY%3D&pq-origsite=primo Wilber, Mary K., and Marc Potenza. “Adolescent Gambling – PMC.” NCBI, 3 October 2006, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2945873/