Two English schools have taken the unusual step of informing their pupils about the threat of gambling addiction.

Harlow School, located in Middlesex, and King's College School in south London are helping their young students to avoid getting caught up in gambling as the wave of online access increases by the week.

At King's College School, suspicion was raised when some students started showing odd behavior, being unprepared and distracted in class. It turned out that those students were gambling on the Internet until the late hours. Following this incident, the school, which already had a gambling educational program, went a step further as to bring a recovered compulsive gambler to the class.

Elsewhere Harlow School, which is a boarding school, is not aware of such incidents occurring with their pupils, because it's easier for them to monitor the Internet activities of their students, than the parents at home with their children.

 This did not ease the worry of the school board of the Middlesex school and they have introduced their own program for gambling awareness.

It is expected over the course of the next few years that more and more schools will employ such programs, or refurbish existing ones to cover the potential dangers of Internet gambling and betting.

Responsible online gaming sites take the issue very seriously and all warn that to participate players must be over the age of 18 years old.