THEY START YOUNG, DON'T THEY?: Fake cash doesn't pay, LCC boys find

[Louis Cypher]

KAREN SEIDMAN
The Gazette


Thursday, October 14, 2004


A Grade 9 student at Lower Canada College began trafficking in counterfeit currency to pay off thousands of dollars in gambling debts and involved at least a dozen students in his illegal scheme before school officials busted them last week.

A core group of four Grade 9 and 10 students were involved in trading and exchanging about $12,000 in counterfeit $10 bills.

The four have permanently withdrawn from the exclusive English private school on Royal Ave. in Notre Dame de Grace.

Another Grade 9 student has been suspended for one week for lending money to a friend to pay off his gambling debts and for circulating counterfeit money. Four other boys who admitted to handling the bogus cash served a one-day, in-school suspension that included counselling. Asked why they did it, the students uniformly said it was "cool."

On Tuesday, LCC headmaster Paul Bennett assembled his students to tell them it's possible to be cool - and still have the courage to do what is right.

"Very few of the students realized the significance of what they were doing, but they've had a rude awakening," Bennett said in an interview yesterday.

The counterfeit ring was exposed after the chance arrest Sept. 30 of a Grade 9 LCC boy in a park in Mount Royal borough.

Police were patrolling the area because of a rash of break-ins, Montreal police communications official Melissa Carroll said. When the boy bolted after seeing a police cruiser, police caught him and found 42 fake $10 bills in his wallet.

Charges are still pending. The matter has been handed over to the fraud squad, Carroll said.

Once they were tipped off, school officials began interviewing students and discovered the fake cash had been traded on school property.

It's not clear how the boys obtained the counterfeit cash, which was of very poor quality. The scheme was a miserable failure, according to Bennett, who said the boys paid $3 for each counterfeit $10 bill and tried to sell each bill for $5, but had difficulty getting their price.

Bennett said he was stunned to also discover that several boys had run up substantial debts through Internet gambling and wagering on sports.

[Bitter Bruin]

Damn, being a parent today is tough. Now I need to teach my kids how to not only make good counterfeits, but how to pass them too. Man, if I knew it was going to be this tough...

[TTinCO]

Anyone heard from Oldfriend since this went down?

[Bitter Bruin]

JJ's been awfully quiet.

[clevfan]

Internet gambling a magnet for teens
experts: More than half will wager; Problem is widespread and growing because kids are comfortable with interactive games

KAREN SEIDMAN
The Montreal Gazette


Friday, October 15, 2004

Internet wagering is a growing phenomenon among adolescents because they love the thrill of risk and are comfortable with interactive games, gambling experts said yesterday.

"There are more kids gaining access to Internet gambling because there are more and more teens with credit cards, especially in the more privileged walks of life," said Rina Gupta, co-director of the International Centre for Youth Gambling Problems and High Risk Behaviour at McGill University. "Internet gambling is quite a concern to us."

Teen gambling came to the forefront in a most dramatic way this week, as Lower Canada College had to deal with a student who initiated a counterfeit money scheme to finance gambling debts of thousands of dollars.

In all, about 12 students were involved in distributing or using $12,000 in bogus money. The four boys in Grades 9 and 10 who formed the core group have been permanently withdrawn from the private Notre Dame de Grace school.

One Grade 9 boy stored the bills under his bed and helped destroy them after school officials began asking questions.

"The main organizers claimed they were motivated by the thrill and risk of gambling, by the desire to make 'quick money' and/or by the notoriety that comes from having a wad of bills in your hands," LCC headmaster Paul Bennett said.

"Most lower-level participants freely admitted they wanted to be recognized, to gain acceptance or simply be part of the crowd."

Gupta said she has seen teenage gamblers defraud banks to pay off their gambling debts. One boy wrote fake cheques for $25,000 a few years ago, she said.

"This is definitely not a problem restricted to LCC," she said.

But she lamented the fact schools are often reluctant to address the problem or even let researchers in to collect data.

Studies show 55 to 85 per cent of teens gamble for money, and they begin as early as Grade 4.

About 10 to 15 per cent of teens have gambling-related problems, like lying or stealing to cover up their gambling. About 5 per cent qualify as addicted to gambling.

Gupta said about five per cent of adolescents are wagering on the Internet and that number is probably growing.

"It's very hard to use the Internet without getting a pop-up for an online casino," Gupta said.

"They may start by betting $20 but then quickly go up to $1,500 to get that arousal."

Some clues that a teenager has a gambling problem include:

Being obsessive about watching every sports event.

Unusual interest in money and the value of goods.

Items missing from the home.

Falling grades.

The English Montreal School Board is the first board to launch a large gambling-prevention program in its schools with the help of $135,000 from the Health and Social Services Department.

Dora Cesta, assistant director of student services for the board, said The Winning Combination will be launched in three schools this fall to address gambling. It is being conducted in co-operation with Jewish Family Services.

Calling gambling a "quiet epidemic," she said the program will focus on Grade 9 students and creating an environment that will help prevent gambling.

Barbara Victor, director of school services for Jewish Family Services, said the knowledge that kids were using counterfeit money has jarred everyone into realizing just how serious the problem is.

"It speaks of desperation," she said, adding that schools can't be blamed for such behaviour. "We need to get to the parents. Childhood used to be a time of innocence and learning. Now it's a time of sophistication."