The UCA offers preventive talks about online gambling to more than 500 young people

This activity developed in the IES of Benidorm is framed in the Ludens Program of the Health Ministry

The department of Social Welfare, directed by the councilor Angela Llorca, through the technical staff of the Unit for Prevention in Addictive Behaviors (UCA), has offered lectures on the risks of online gambling to more than 500 students of Bachelor and Formatives Cycles of the five Institutes of Secondary Education (IES) of Benidorm. These preventive talks, given in March, are part of the Ludens Program of the Conselleria of Universal Health and Public Health and aims to deepen the use currently made by young people of these games.

From the UCA have indicated that through these talks "it is tried to unmask the most common risks of this type of games, as well as facilitate strategies for reflection that help in making of personal decisions" regarding them. The program is divided into two sessions of approximately one hour duration; Time that is used to know: characteristics of gambling, legal and online games, testimonies of gambling, what is addiction to gambling, or gambling.

In addition to the lectures given by the technical staff of the UCA, the students have responded to a survey that evaluates different game indicators and associated problems. The analysis of these questionnaires reveals that 68% of the young respondents have a favorable attitude to these types of games and think that it is an easy way to make money. In addition, more than 30% of these young people claim to have played some type of online gambling, among them, 42% have done it for poker, while 84% to sports betting despite being, for the most part, under eighteen.