AiS Supercomputer Challenge Team 081 Social Influences Involved in Teenage Gambling Behavior
Team 081
Silver High School
Ben Fox
Kyle Youngs
Executive Summary Purpose Proposal Methology Results and Conclusion

Executive Summary

Gambling is a major problem facing today's society. In recent years, the increase in teenage gambling has caused many concerns.

This study contains three hypotheses: (1) group involvement will increase the betting patterns; (2) males will be more influential in gambling activities; and (3) males will wager more than females as they are greater risk-takers by nature.

The team created three different gambling simulation games (roulette, 21, and slots) in order to observe participants' playing behavior.

The population selected for this study consisted of 60 high school students from southern New Mexico. The participants were 30 males and 30 females. All students were between the ages of 14 and 18 and were all defined as inexperienced gamblers (e.g. defined as never playing in a casino before). The students participated in the gambling simulations and the results were recorded by using C++ programs created by members of the team and sent to a text file to allow for the data to be read.

Using Microsoft Excel, a Chi-squared statistical test was performed along with finding the mean and standard deviation of each game. It was found by summing the amount bet divided by the times played. In a previous evaluation of this project, it was determined that the data be checked for statistical significance by using the Chi-squared statistical test.

After analyzing the data and checking its validity with the Chi-square test, all three hypotheses were found to be correct because the results showed statistical significance.