Specialists from the Instituto Provincial de Lotería y Casinos (IPLyC) Responsible Gambling Program traveled to Leandro N. Alem, in the Argentinian province of Misiones, to deliver a prevention workshop for teachers focused on the risks of online betting and problematic technology use among teenagers.
The session was part of a broader provincial strategy to raise awareness and provide practical tools directly to educational communities.
The training was led by Lic. Marisa Seewald, a psychologist and member of the Responsible Gambling Program, who stressed the need for early intervention in a problem that cuts across the entire social fabric.
Marisa Seewald, Psychologist at IPLyC's Responsible Gambling Program, said: "Gambling games are an entertainment activity, but they have addictive characteristics. It is essential to understand that in order to prevent risk situations and act before they turn into a bigger problem."
The workshop addressed the neurological changes that occur during adolescence and their influence on impulse control and emotional regulation, factors that, according to the specialists, make young people particularly vulnerable to unregulated digital betting platforms.
Educators were given strategies for early detection and institutional support, and the session included group analysis spaces. The program has also extended its scope beyond adolescents, coordinating a training cycle with the gerontology sector to address gambling-related addiction in older adults.
The scale of the problem in Misiones is documented. A survey carried out by the Defensoría del Pueblo de Posadas, the IPEC and the IPLyC found that 36.5% of adolescents in Posadas reported gambling activity, a figure that researchers note is consistent with findings from other provinces. Easy access to unregulated platforms, combined with increasingly aggressive digital marketing, has pushed the issue onto the radar of schools, families and mental health professionals.
The session is part of an ongoing provincial rollout by the IPLyC, which has expanded its outreach to include schools across different regions of Misiones, penitentiary staff and human resources teams at local businesses.
In previous editions, the program reached students from different schools while also running a self-exclusion workshop for company representatives at the local club
