I remember the excitement of getting the Nintendo video game Super Mario Bros. 2 in 1988 and how much I played it on Christmas Day and beyond. Anyone who knows me knows how obsessed I am with the Mario franchise, from getting my hands on the soundtracks to playing the games until the end and beyond.

In the second game of the franchise, one of the features in between stages was a slot machine. Depending on how many coins you collected in subspace, those were the number of chances you had to win extra lives. If you got three of the same icons, you got an extra life. Cherries made it more interesting, where if you got one in the first window, you got an extra life. Two of them gave you two lives, and five gave you five lives.

Playing the slots in the game did not turn me into a gambling addict.

For those wondering why I would make the aforementioned statement. One of the local television news stations reported that a research report released by Common Sense Media revealed that more than one in three boys gamble, with video games being the top way boys “place their bets.”

The report says that it surveyed young boys between the ages of 11 and 17, 1,000 in all, and found that much of the betting happens in video games through loot boxes, skin cases and other reward systems. Many of these video games have a connection to the internet, allowing these kids to connect with each other and apparently gamble together.

I guess I was one of the lucky ones. In 1988, there was no World Wide Web to connect us. I was playing the game alone (it was only one-player), and the “gambling” in the game simply gave me the ability to proceed further and further into the game. With each level completed and each boss defeated, I got to play the game and find a way to keep going.

Apparently, it’s the online factor that is making young boys gamble more, according to Common Sense Media, but I would venture to say that youth have been betting and wagering in some fashion, just not to the extremes of today. I remember occasionally betting with classmates in middle and high school, usually on a classmate’s ability to do something.

Somehow, I didn’t turn around and become a frequent flyer in the casinos. I grew up with two casinos in the next town over, and I currently live in a place where four casinos are within driving distance. I’m not spending my paycheck on seeing if I get all lemons on the slots or betting that I’ll make it to 21 in a game of blackjack before the dealer does.

I find it hard to believe that youth gambling is as big a deal as Common Sense Media claims, especially since it’s not a big headline in most markets. Where are the details? How did the researchers come to the conclusion that pre-teen and teen boys have a predilection to gamble?

I also question it because it’s a report about boys. Why are there no statistics in the report about girls? What is it in boys’ chromosomes that makes them look at gambling and think, “Oo, that’s for me”? On the odd occasion that I do poke my head into a casino—usually when I’m working—many of the folks playing the slot machines are ladies.

I won’t argue that some games aren’t dangerous and risky, but it seems like there’s always the claim that the latest newfangled contraptions and technology will rot your brain, turn you psycho or make you put out like a broken candy machine. I’ll worry when someone presents actual evidence and not when some group makes a claim without proof.

In the meantime, I’m still playing Super Mario Bros. 2 and still playing the slots in the hopes of getting extra lives 40 years later, even though all that practice and trial and error has made me harder to kill. As a matter of fact, the gambling signs have been in other Mario games. Take Super Mario Bros. 3, where I have to gamble that I’ll get a strong power-up to store or just a mushroom. The slots return in Super Mario 3D World.

Will the Mario games eventually lead me to the dark side of gambling where I’m sitting at a card table and begging the dealer to hit me?

Place your wagers.