t’s a safe bet that underage gambling will go undetected until it manifests itself in bloody noses and broken bones after teens can’t beat the odds, say local law enforcement officials.


Casino	Prevented	Escorted			 		Totals	 	from entering	from	at 	at	gambling	other 	casino	casino	tables	slots				  Caesar’s	2,604	11,216	5	56	63	20	13,964 Claridge	147	177	9	8	0	0	341 Harrah’s	4,393	4,249	1	33	4	0	8,680 Hilton	3,456	2,407	4	9	12	0	5,888 Park Place	21,105	3,023	2	5	2	0	24,136 Trump Plaza	133	60	14	36	38	3	283 Resorts	0	5,104	3	2	6	3	5,118 Sands	1,206	1,295	0	0	0	0	2,501 Showboat	0	1,245	0	2	2	0	1,249 Taj Mahal	0	2,956	1	40	38	2	3,037 Tropicana	14,158	614	17	16	30	0	14,835 Trump Marina	145	275	9	18	25	0	472 TOTAL	57,347	32,621	65	224	219	28	80,504Casino Prevented Escorted Totals from entering from at at gambling other casino casino tables slots Caesar’s 2,604 11,216 5 56 63 20 13,964 Claridge 147 177 9 8 0 0 341 Harrah’s 4,393 4,249 1 33 4 0 8,680 Hilton 3,456 2,407 4 9 12 0 5,888 Park Place 21,105 3,023 2 5 2 0 24,136 Trump Plaza 133 60 14 36 38 3 283 Resorts 0 5,104 3 2 6 3 5,118 Sands 1,206 1,295 0 0 0 0 2,501 Showboat 0 1,245 0 2 2 0 1,249 Taj Mahal 0 2,956 1 40 38 2 3,037 Tropicana 14,158 614 17 16 30 0 14,835 Trump Marina 145 275 9 18 25 0 472 TOTAL 57,347 32,621 65 224 219 28 80,504

However, a statement from the state Department of Law and Public Safety’s Gaming Enforcement Division, released in January of this year, did report 255 arrests for underage gambling in Atlantic City casinos in 2000.

While the state police would not comment on whether that number in the legal casino haven has increased, decreased or leveled off lately, one thing is clear: statistics on underage gambling in suburban New Jersey are nil.

Local law enforcement officials wagered a guess as to why.

In Middletown, Monmouth County, where the school district accommodates more than 10,000 students, Police Chief John Pollinger said no underage gambling problem has reared its head.

"Parents and school officials are not reporting any problems with kids gambling," said Pollinger. "But even if they were, it would be difficult to investigate, just as it is with adults. There has to be proof of illegal wagering. Kids may be admitting to someone or one another that they are, in fact, gambling, but they’re clearly not sitting at a cafeteria table or desk flashing cards, chips and dice and laying out money like in a casino. They could, however, be wagering a toothpick that represents a dollar amount, and there’s still no proof that the wagering is going on without the money in sight."

Hearing that teens have ‘fessed up to the gambling trend and even brag that the habit is ignored by adults, Pollinger said ignorance could be one reason why the problem is not reported to police.

"I have to wonder," he said. "If it’s going on in schools, on school property and on school time, where are the kids getting the opportunity to gamble instead of being educated? This may be an alert to school administrations."

The crime bears a more common criminal look, Pollinger noted, only after a beating from debt enforcement.

Parents might be ignorant of a problem with their own children gambling, he said, because they tend to look for more obvious signs of a troubled teen — like the apathy and bloodshot eyes of a drug user or the stale stench from a beer binge. The same, to a degree, holds true for law enforcement, he said.

"Substance abuse is a complex issue to investigate, but outward signs are there and proof is more tangible once you hold an investigation," Pollinger said. "In order to prove that a teen gambling problem is pervasive, law enforcement would have to post an undercover officer in the schools or with the kids, or they’d just have to admit it. We don’t have 16-year-old undercover officers and not too many kids will admit to an officer that something illegal is going on."

Detective Lt. Thomas Mitchell of the Keyport Police Department, an 18-year police veteran and former director of the Bayshore Narcotics Task Force, agreed.

The Bayshore task force was created, Mitchell said, to target narcotics dealers and drug abuse through the cooperative undercover operations of police officers in 10 Monmouth County Bayshore area towns.

Gambling is another matter, he added. While Mitchell said he has seen about 50 arrests per year for drug distribution, "in all my 18 years, no parents or teachers or any adults have ever even reported one incident of [underage] gambling."

The closest he ever came to uncovering a bona fide case of underage gambling, Mitchell said, was "one time, years ago, when the Keyport police received information that there was a sports bet on going on using tickets, but nothing ever panned out."

Mitchell agreed that parents might not only be ignoring signs of gambling, but might be breathing a sigh of relief that it’s not drugs or alcohol.

"Generally, it could very well be that parents are so relieved when they see no signs of substance abuse that if they hear a little betting going on, either they don’t recognize there’s anything wrong with it or it’s minimal to them compared to drugs. It could be why it’s not reported," Mitchell said.

In all likelihood, he said, if a parent or teacher gets a glimpse of a gambling habit and doesn’t turn it over to the law for squelching, they probably just don’t recognize it as criminal or problematic.

Appearance is everything, too, Mitchell said. It’s also a big reason why adults might inadvertently sweep the typical teen gambler under the table. Young gamblers have a mainstream, even ambitious, look. This is why proof of the crime usually doesn’t show until enforcement of a debt forces parental or police involvement.

What happens with underage gambling, said Monmouth County Deputy First Assistant Prosecutor Kenneth W. Keller, is that parents become aware of the problem only when gambling debts become unmanageable by the teen (usually hundreds of dollars).

"They don’t have the means to pay back the debt," said Keller. "Either they go to their parents and they pay the debt and never report it, or they only tell their parents when they have to — after they’ve been threatened or beaten up. The parents will then go to the local police, when it looks more like a classic crime, and local police will turn it over to us."

Absolutely no cases of underage gambling have been documented by his office in the past year, Keller said. On the other hand, 280 juvenile drug cases were brought to his office for prosecution since Jan. 1, 2002. That, he said, doesn’t account for an additional 100 or so cases involving possession of less than 50 grams of marijuana that come to the prosecutor’s attention and get deferred.

"Underage gambling takes place under the radar, unlike drug abuse," Keller said. "It doesn’t tend to raise suspicion in any way. It’s not something that comes to anyone’s attention unless it manifests itself in a more usual crime — like threats or beating to enforce a debt. Because of the way it tends to stay under that radar, it’s not something on the minds or in the forefront of law enforcement."

It’s not that the Prosecutor’s Office would decline to go after underage gambling crimes, he said. "We just don’t hear about it."

Keller recalled one "too little, too late" incident that slipped through the white-collar cracks. Looks, he said, are the deception with this crime.

The case came to the attention of the Prosecutor’s Office about four years ago, Keller said. It involved a teenager getting into trouble because of betting on a sports game. The teen was from an affluent area, where a high disposable income among the youth is common, and gambling abounds but is not reported. The teen seemed like an exemplary student model citizen until the juvenile was threatened because there were gambling debts that had become unmanageable.

"Another reason why teen gambling is hard to catch is because a very popular focus for suburban bets is sports, like football or basketball. ItLaw enforcement: Catching underage gamblers a gamble

By elaine van develde

Staff Writer has a very all-American mask. Underage or not, pro football is the biggest subject of illegal gambling, next only to the NCAA basketball tournament," Keller said. With a "wanna bet" verbalization tossed out here or there, he added, there’s no tangible wager to pin as illegal.

Betting is also an attractive form of competition that some kids aspire to, Keller added. Many of the kids who get caught up in gambling have parents who are very competitive in their professional and social circles. The kids may be twisting in their own minds an otherwise harmless, healthy competition message, he said. Money is attractive to kids, too, he said. Some want to emulate the ambition and money that already pervades their environment.

On the other end of the social spectrum, something else to watch for, he said, is the kid who normally doesn’t have a lot of money and suddenly does.

"People tend to think that kid is dealing drugs. It could be gambling," he said.