THEY are all from troubled communities in central Kingston — Tower Street, James Street, and Rum Lane — but these self-assured students of Holy Family Primary have successfully defended their school’s title in the Underage Gambling Prevention Jingle Competition.

Like their predecessors, they are pointing to the dangers of the increasingly troubling practice, the vicious gambling cycle in which their peers have been caught.

Holy Family Primary made a clean sweep of the competition, staged by the Betting, Gaming & Lotteries Commission (BGLC) in collaboration with Rise Life Management Services, during its first stint in 2022.

The school again triumphed in 2023 and remained the top team in 2024, with Torelle Campbell placing first, Tatiana Turner second, and Cheniqua Christie fourth.

They have seen underage gambling at its worst, and Torelle says: “It must be stopped.”

According to Torelle, more adult supervision is needed to tackle this scourge.

“Children are more doing it because many others are doing it — that’s why more supervision is needed,” added Torelle.

For Tatiana, “it [underage gambling] is not good and breaks down families and friends. More fun games need to be promoted for children”.

That is a position shared by Cheniqua who said: “We really, really need more fun and games for children to stop getting involved in this.”

The views of the three youngsters are shared by several guidance counsellors in the Ministry of Education and Youth’s Region One, which covers a significant section of inner-city communities in Kingston.

The have reported that they’re finding underage gambling to be increasingly challenging.

According to Ian Grant, guidance counsellor and school chaplain of St Andrew Technical High School for the last nine years, there are myriad social issues impacting these communities.

“With daily survival on the line for many of these households, underage gambling is simply a part of it,” said Grant.

In the meantime Richard Henry, programme manager of Rise Life Management Services, said the jingle competition is a major tool in tackling underage gambling in Jamaica.

“It enables greater reach to our youth islandwide, and because of the modality it has the effect of creating greater interest from the youth within this age group — especially on all media platforms,” he said.

For Wendy Robertson, corporate affairs and communication manager of BGLC, the jingle competition creates a greater level of awareness among youth about the ills of underage gambling.

“The winning jingles are transformed into educational animations. They also provide us with another set of critical resources which is shared on social media and used at workshops and presentations,” said Robertson.

The theme of the 2024 competition was: ‘Gambling, Gambling!… Dat A Nuh Fi You!’ and Lawayne Thomas, the 32-year-old maths, language arts, social studies, and science teacher who has been helping the children of Holy Family Primary to write their jingles, said while working with the 11-year-olds one is immediately taken with how confident they are and how comfortably they express themselves.

Torelle Campbell’s winning jingle was:

“Gambling, gambling, that a nuh fi you

Cause yuh too young fi di gambling youth

Yuh brain too young, yuh nuh reach eighteen

And di gambling thing will cause pure things

Yuh get addicted, yuh brain twisted

Yuh brain crumble like a biscuit

A one life yuh have nuh badda risk it….”

Tatiana Turner grabbed second place with:

“If a game yuh a play den it nice

But don’t use money when yuh play wid di dice”

Cheniqua Christie’s fourth-placed entry was:

“Get gambling outta yu headspace

Cause you will get addicted

Why not focus pan yu school instead

You too young, yes that’s what I said…”