Risky Business : More teens are gambling, but few people seem to care. Odds are, a researcher warns, betting will lead many kids into trouble--like theft, truancy and a love of easy money.

If you’re pondering a list of teen-age vices, gambling might not come immediately to mind. But listen to what Julie, a 17-year-old Fountain Valley High student, says about her friends who roll the dice until well after midnight at weekend parties.

“A lot of guys get together and play craps on the pool tables. They bet $40 and $50, but it’s their parents’ money, so they don’t care if they lose it.”

The betting extends to the school parking lot, Julie said, where a handful of students often skip class to try their luck.

“There’s this guy and he has this van . . . it’s like a house. And they go out there during fourth period and play craps.”

Teen-age gambling is on the rise across the country. Durand Jacobs, a Redlands psychologist who conducted a series of studies involving 3,700 students from 17 high schools in California, Minnesota, Virginia, New Jersey and Connecticut, estimates that as many as 7 million juveniles gamble for money and that more than a million experience related problems, such as stealing and truancy.

Jacobs’ study, the first on teen gambling, has prompted similar surveys in Texas, New Jersey, Florida and other states.

“It’s the same everywhere,” Jacobs said. “Other studies have replicated my findings. . . . There’s no regional bias.”

But it isn’t just the numbers that concern Jacobs and other juvenile therapists. It’s the attitude of kids, parents and even some educators toward teen gambling.

“Public understanding of gambling problems is where our understanding of alcoholism was some 40 or 50 years ago,” said Jacobs, vice president of the New York City-based National Council on Problem Gambling.

Many kids and their parents consider gambling a “harmless diversion,” with consequences much less serious than those from involvement with drugs, alcohol, violence or promiscuity. But Jacobs says gambling can expose youngsters to crime, truancy and a desire for easy money.

“One of the points that has to be made is that most of the people went on to be compulsive gamblers because when they started as teen-agers, they were winners,” Jacobs said. The overwhelming majority of young people, he added, were introduced to gambling by their parents or relatives who condoned it as fun and games.

Jacobs said the urge can strike early, with more than 33% of the students surveyed in 1989 saying they had bet for money by their 11th birthday. More than 80% of them had wagered on a variety of games with family and friends by the time they were 15.

Although Jacobs’ survey found indications of widespread teen gambling, school officials rarely say their students are involved.

“The attitude of the schools across the country is that it’s happening, but not on my campus,” Jacobs said.

Officials at several schools in Los Angeles and Orange counties said they were unaware of any gambling activity on their grounds.

“I don’t want to say that it couldn’t be happening,” said San Marino High School Vice Principal David Crist. “It’s not been an issue in my time here that I’ve had to deal with.”

West L.A. Baptist High School Principal John Reynolds said he knows of no wagering activity on his 100-student campus.

“If we’ve had that problem, it’s not cropped up to the point where any faculty members are aware of it,” he said.

The implications of teen-age wagering vary from person to person.

As she watched her boys play dice while waiting to order at a local family restaurant, an Irvine mother of two Rancho San Joaquin Intermediate School students called gambling a phase, a rite of passage for American youth.

“It’s just for fun,” she said. “We really don’t mind.”

The boys said kids at the junior high school gamble in the bathrooms “or places that aren’t obvious” with lunch money or pocket change, flipping coins in the air and betting on heads or tails.

“We just do it for fun,” said one. “The most I ever bet was a dollar.”

Conne Kirkpatrick, a high school teacher from San Clemente, doesn’t consider an occasional poker game cause for alarm. She said her 18-year-old son, Ryan, wagers from time to time.

“He plays poker with some of his friends, and as far as I know, it’s with (poker) chips or small change,” she said. “It makes him feel grown up in one way or another.”

“I don’t get all carried away,” said the recent San Clemente High School graduate. “It’s just fun.”

Jerry, a police officer from Orange County, said gambling can have a beneficial effect on children. “I sit down and play cards with (his own children). It teaches them that there has to be a winner and a loser,” he said. “This way, I’m there with them.”

Fourteen-year-old A.C. said he started wagering with friends because “I was too old for Nintendo and too young to drive and didn’t have anything to do.” Until recently, he enjoyed wagering on an afternoon poker hand or blacktop hoops with the guys, but when he started losing five bucks here and there, his gambling habit came to an abrupt halt.

“I’m a sore loser, and I started to lose, so I stopped,” he said.

His 16-year-old friend Sano, however, said he loves to play poker and doesn’t plan on stopping.

“I’ll probably get a game together tonight,” said the Los Alamitos High School student. “I just play with friends, and my parents don’t mind unless I whine about losing.”

Jacobs said the most popular and fastest-growing form of gambling on junior high, high school and college campuses is sports betting, “sometimes backed by local bookies.”

“I would predict that there are very few high school and college campuses that don’t have well-organized and high-stakes sports pools,” he said.

Many youngsters say they’re worried about the physical danger of taking money from, or owing money to, someone they don’t know.

“I would never bet with a stranger,” said Sano. “They might come after you with a vengeance. . . . Your friends will let (gambling debts) go.”

Julie said she’s heard that “things can get rough” if you don’t pay up.

Scott, a 15-year-old Huntington Beach High School student, said a friend of his recently lost a $50 bet on a basketball game, but it cost him more than that when he didn’t pay promptly.

“He got a black eye, and they hit his face,” he said. “He paid a week later. . . . he paid in cash.”

Experts say the long-range effects of gambling are more debilitating, and members of Gamblers Anonymous have personal stories to prove the point.

Kenny, 53, said he started wagering for money when he was 14 years old. “Gambling-free” for the past three years, he said his early start took its toll.

“I was an entrepreneur . . . then I took money from my family,” he said. “I’ve made and lost a million dollars in my lifetime--now I’m a has-been.”

Joe, who started pitching pennies at 13, said that like an alcoholic’s first drink, his first taste of winning something for nothing put him on a path toward addiction.

“It escalated to poker games, and after that, it was periodical,” said the 46-year-old recovering gambling addict from Ontario. “I really didn’t get into trouble until I turned 21 and discovered Vegas.”

Karen, a recovering addict and spokeswoman for Gamblers Anonymous International, began as a curious 7-year-old by flipping baseball cards against the garage door.

After it led to more than 13 years of compulsive gambling, the Arcadia woman was forced by her husband “to get help or get out.”

“There’s a real fine line (between) being able to gamble normal and having a problem,” she said. She was able to stop gambling with the help of Gamblers Anonymous.

One of the few places adolescents can get help in Los Angeles is Gamblers Anonymous, which holds a meeting for people 30 and under in West Los Angeles. However, children don’t fit in well with the adults, many of whom have lost jobs or families and suffer from grown-up problems.

“The youngest I’ve seen in a meeting is about 17 or 18,” said Joe. “They get in trouble with sports betting or on the phone with a bookie, but they don’t stick around. . . . I’d love for them to come back (to get help).”

Many parents have a false sense of security, Jacobs said, because they believe that legal sanctions will discourage any “really serious” gambling under 18 years of age.

But teens like Julie are rarely tempted to gamble. Because she works hard for minimum wage at a local miniature golf course, she doesn’t see herself ever rolling the dice at those late-night parties.

“I (only) make $5 an hour,” she said. “I could never bet.”