Proprietary to the United Press International 1984 August 22, 1984, Wednesday, AM cycle SECTION: Regional News DISTRIBUTION: New York Metro, New York Metro LENGTH: 491 words BYLINE: By LOUIS TOSCANO DATELINE: ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. BODY: Two experts Wednesday urged the Casino Control Commission to finance education programs to curb teenage gambling, a problem they said has grown to ''epidemic proportions.'' ''We are cultivating a generation of potentially compulsive gamblers,'' Martin Rimm, a former Atlantic City High School student who has conducted research on the problem, told the commission. United Press International August 22, 1984, Wednesday, AM cycle Rimm and Robert Klein, executive director of the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey Inc., said a survey of students at three state high school uncovered clear evidence of widespread gambling activity. ''Teenagers are gambling and they are gambling in epidemic proportions,'' Rimm said. The gaming panel expressed doubt about the survey's conclusions. ''I must confess that I find some of your statistics less than credible,'' commission chairman Walter Read said. He said surveys conducted by the state do not indicate the problem is nearly as serious as Rimm and Klein contend. Rimm and Klein asked the panel to finance education programs, using fines levied on casinos that allow minors to gamble and on teenagers caught gambling. The programs in schools across the state would alert parents and students to the dangers of gambling, they said. Rimm also called on casino officials to tighten security procedures to make sure underage gamblers are not permitted to enter gambling halls. He said United Press International August 22, 1984, Wednesday, AM cycle schools should not allow proms and other events to be held in casino-hotels. Commissioner Carl Zeitz said state law prohibits the use of fines levied by the commission to finance education programs. He also questioned the need for tighter security in the gambling halls. ''The statistics we get indicate that the casinos are making a reasonably good effort to deal with the problem,'' he said. Teenage gambling has been reported since casinos were legalized in 1977. More than 90,000 youths were escorted from gambling halls by security guards from August 1982 to December 1983, and more than 375,000 others were stopped before entering the casinos, commission statistics show. Rimm cited a survey last spring of 900 students, whose average age was 17, conducted at three high schools across New Jersey, one of which was only 20 minutes from Atlantic City. The poll, analyzed by sociologist Henry Lesieur at St. John's University in New York, found 87 percent of the students engaged in some form of gambling -- such as casinos, horse racing, card games, lotteries and bingo -- last year. United Press International August 22, 1984, Wednesday, AM cycle A total of 46 percent gambled in casinos, and more than half of those said they were accompanied by their parents. The 18-page report indicated at least 8.4 percent of the students fit the profile of compulsive gamblers. Rimm, now a sophomore at the University of South Florida, conducted a survey at Atlantic City High School in 1981 that found 64 percent of the students had gambled in casinos. He said 300 of them considered themselves steady gamblers. LANGUAGE: ENGLISH