SALEM, Ore. (AP) - Teachers and community centers talk endlessly about the dangers of sex, drugs and alcohol. Gambling gets far less attention.

But a new survey shows that free gambling on the Internet is the most popular gambling activity among youths in Oregon, and that worries officials who say it grooms teenagers for the real thing.

"You're learning that gambling is fun, it's stimulating, and it's risk-free," said Wendy Hausotter, problem gambling prevention coordinator with Oregon Department of Human Services. "That's not true at all."

There are about 1,700 gambling sites on the Internet, and many offer the option of gambling for free or for money.

The survey, commissioned by DHS last year, found that 33 percent of youths ages 12 to 17 gamble online for free.

It's convenient and easy, officials say, because it can be done at home at any time, often under no supervision from parents.

"It's the game of choice among youth, which is surprising for us," Hausotter said. "It wasn't on the radar screen."

The last such survey in Oregon in 1998 didn't ask teens and parents about free online gambling. At the time, betting on card games was the most common type of gambling among Oregon youths. It's now a close second.

Internet gambling for money, which is illegal, was done by less than 1 percent of teens participating last year, and overall gambling among Oregon youth has dropped in the past 10 years.

"We're not saying 'Don't gamble,"' said Yvonne Kays, a prevention health educator with Marion County Health Department. "Our message is, you need to recognize the risk factors and when it becomes a problem."

Free online gambling can be a draw for youths, who think they're not doing anything harmful, officials said.

Also, the odds of winning tend to be higher when there's no money waged, Kays said. That can lead kids to think they're lucky or skillful, or that they can win money at other games.

"It disconnects them from the reality of the situation," Hausotter said. "We're afraid that they're going to want to do this more and more. If they do this with money, they're at risk for many things."

That includes loss of money and identity theft, officials said. Online gambling, which is growing in popularity, also is unregulated, so there's no guarantee of a payout.

Officials note that gambling in general has been correlated with behaviors such as drinking.

This year's Oregon Healthy Teens survey found that the percentage of 11th-graders who binge drank, carried a handgun or had attacked someone in the past 30 days was higher among those who gambled.

Hausotter said state officials plan to meet with gambling prevention specialists next month to figure out how to curb free online gambling and get the message out.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)