“Penny-up” might sound like a harmless children’s game, but it’s causing upset and arguments in school playgrounds across the country.

The name can vary by region but the rules are broadly the same: several players each throw a coin against a wall, and the one that bounces their coin back the furthest wins the lot.

“It might as well be called ‘two-pound-up’ because they’re using two-pound coins, or whatever they’ve got,” says Dr Jane Rigbye, a chartered psychologist, who is director of education at the charity GambleAware.

“Even in primary schools they’re playing it, and they’re losing all of their week’s pocket money. It can cause fights and it can lead to different social groups pitting against each other. For some children it will be an activity they can control and for others it will be really problematic.”

According to the latest survey by the Gambling Commission, the main gambling activity among schoolchildren aged 11 to 16 is “placing a private bet for money among friends”. Next is buying scratch cards, followed by fruit machines, followed by playing cards for money with friends, and then betting online.

The commission’s Young People and Gambling 2018 report, published at the end of last year, says around 450,000 11- to 16-year-olds (14 per cent) had gambled in the past week - an increase of 80,000 pupils on 2017. On average, each young person had spent £16 in that week either from pocket money or earnings.

The survey also found that almost one in 25 pupils is now either a problem gambler or at risk of becoming one - compared to one in 45 in 2017.

That equates to about one pupil in every classroom in Great Britain.

“It might not sound like much, but losing a bus fare or dinner money is a level of harm for pupils, and the concern for me is what’s the harm that happens next?” says Rigbye.

“How does it develop someone’s life course? If someone develops a gambling problem as an adolescent, do they go through their life not developing social relationships, not holding down a job or not saving money, and does that mean their life outcomes are potentially at detriment?

“Adults coming through treatment services often say their problems started when they were young, when they gambled instead of hanging out with their mates, and spent money they had stolen from parents that was intended for other things. I’ve seen people who dropped out of university because they didn’t have enough money, and had to go back home.”

The number of young people who had gambled in the last week was more than those who had drunk alcohol (13 per cent) or smoked cigarettes (4 per cent) or taken illegal drugs (2 per cent), according to the survey.

Yet, Rigbye points out, there is still no statutory requirement to teach the topic of gambling on the national curriculum.

“Quite often, teachers will say gambling isn’t a problem for me because I can’t see it,” she says.

“It isn’t visible in the same way as if someone’s been taking drugs or drinking - so people sometimes put the problems caused by gambling down to other stuff such as mental health problems or something going on at home.

“But you can sometimes tell which pupils have a problem just by the language they use. It might be something as simple as someone saying ‘I bet you’ all the time.”

Teachers are often reluctant to broach the subject because they don’t have the resources or confidence, says schools consultant and former maths teacher Adrian Sladdin (see box).

“It’s a little bit like if someone asked you to teach a lesson on sex education - you might think you know enough about it but you couldn’t actually go and do it,” he says.

Watch out, it’s a meteorite

Sladdin says there are interesting ways teachers can teach pupils about gambling. For example, using quirky statistics: you are more likely to dial random numbers on a telephone and get through to your grandma in London than you are to pick the winning numbers on the National Lottery. Or that, at odds of one in 43 million, you’re more likely to be hit by a meteorite.

And when it comes to maths, teachers can use the National Lottery to teach probability, says Sladdin.

So, for example, when the voiceover man says number 17 has already been drawn four times this year, people might think there’s a good chance of it being drawn again, but the likelihood is still the same as it ever was.

“It’s funny how nobody said anything when they increased the number of balls from 49 to 59 - reducing the odds of winning the jackpot from one in 14 million to one in 43 million - yet at the same time the stake went up from £1 to £2!” says Sladdin.

GambleAware is also helping teachers. In partnership with thinktank Demos, it developed a series of lesson plans for around 600 14-year-olds as part of the personal, social and health education (PSHE) curriculum. The focus was on the risks of gambling, where to go for help and support and how to build resilience to tactics used by companies to encourage gambling.

Follow-up research showed that, in the handful of secondary schools where the lessons were taught, there was a seven percentage point fall in pupils playing cards for money compared to nearby schools where the lessons were not given. It also found a 20 percentage point increase in pupils being able to describe ways to help someone with gambling problems, and a 10 percentage point rise in the number who understood the tactics used by the gambling industry.

“It’s about looking at gambling adverts and critically analysing them,” says Rigbye. “What do they mean? Can pupils unpick them and use critical thinking skills?”

According to the Gambling Commission survey, a total of 66 per cent of 11- to 16-year-olds had seen gambling adverts on television while 59 per cent had seen gambling adverts on social media and 49 per cent had seen gambling sponsorship at sport venues. Yet just 21 per cent said they’d had a conversation with a teacher about the problems gambling can lead to.

Former gambling addict Paul Buck, who gives talks in schools among other places, says the increase in advertising combined with the lack of education could create a further rise in problem gamblers among children.

“It’s like cigarette companies having advertising all over Grand Prix cars but there being no education about smoking,” he says.

Buck, who served 11 months in prison for offences committed to fund his gambling, points out there are websites on which, in some cases, children can place a bet in 12 seconds, but he says the worst sites for children are now gaming sites such as Bejeweled and Candy Crush Saga.

“Children can get near-miss sensations and the same emotions a gambler gets even though they’re not losing anything,” says Buck.

“They start to become psychologically enveloped and that can take hold later on, because when it comes to gambling it’s not just a financial addiction.”

Patrick Foster, a former teacher who almost killed himself after racking up gambling debts of £150,000 (see box, page 49) says there is a “blurred line” between gambling and gaming.

In particular, he says the online survival/adventure game Fortnite “normalises gambling” among children through its in-game payments feature.

In the game, players pay real money for outfits and weapons which can make them better players, but once the money is handed over it’s all down to pot luck as to which items they receive from the “loot crates”.

The charity GamCare, which stages workshops for children on gambling, says a lot of children ask whether loot crates are a form of gambling.

GamCare youth outreach worker Megan Pengelly said some children didn’t realise that gambling includes betting on sport and TV shows such as The X Factor.

“A lot of young people are not able to correctly identify terms related to gambling such as ‘odds’ and ‘stake’, which, if misunderstood, could lead to problems when and if they choose to gamble,” she says. “It’s not uncommon for people to realise in the session that they have participated in gambling without realising.”

As one boy said in a GamCare workshop: “It’s never explained to you in school what [gambling] is, it’s not really something that you talk about with your parents. But if you know about it you can…not steer clear of it, but be mindful.”

Rigbye says gambling is a public health issue that needs to be on the curriculum.

“It needs to be addressed in the same way as alcohol, obesity and smoking because it’s something that can impact on the behaviour and attainment and quality of life of children,” she says. “And teachers need information about what they can do to support and where they can go for help services if needed.

“We know that addressing problem gambling by the time a child is 14 or 15 is probably too late. It’s likely that problem gambling is something that might start a lot earlier, so you need to be talking to kids about it in primary schools.”

Dave Speck is a reporter at Tes

This article originally appeared in the 1 March 2019 issue under the headline “Playing with pupils’ futures”