By Fiona Gounden
School pupils, some as young as 10, are gambling with their classmates and are losing thousands of rands a day.
Many of them are stealing money from their parents and in some cases have become violent and punched their classmates, while others have been threatened with knives, according to Niven Naidoo of Gamblers' Anonymous.
His organisation's statistics show that in the past two months there have been 23 cases of children caught gambling at Durban schools.
Naidoo, who works with schoolchildren from the Durban south area, said his organisation had found that pupils are gambling with their friends using match boxes, bottle tops and cards to represent money.
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"We experienced problems where these pupils are losing between R50 and R100 a day after getting into gambling groups. In one game R2 coins are hidden inside these boxes and they (pupils) are asked to guess in which box the money is in. They win at first and are then enticed to bet for more money. They then bet for amounts like R10 or R20."
Some of these youngsters were even gambling for drugs, said Naidoo.
"They are playing card games where each player has to put a certain drug on the table. Thereafter the winner takes all the drugs. We are encouraging teachers to be vigilant and confiscate any of these items."
He said there had been incidents that had led to violence because of quarrels as a result of the gambling.
SAPS spokesman Superintendent Vincent Mdunge said police would take a tough stance on gambling at schools.
"It is a sensitive issue because they are minors. However, gambling is a serious crime and very often these children pick up these habits from adults and drug dealers. We urge these youngsters to come forward with this information and not let peer pressure at schools force them to gamble".
Joan van Niekerk of Childline said gambling at such a young age could have a negative impact on children's lives later on.
"When they become adults they may become addicts and may lose their incomes and jobs because of this. They need counselling now so that the problem can be sorted out before it reaches a serious stage."
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