The topic for this year's Art & Essay Contest is My Greatest Success as a Military Child and winners receive a week at summer camp through Armed Services YMCA, valued up to $400.

• Alex oversees digital initiatives run by the YMCA’s Youth Gambling Awareness Program (YGAP), which help generate peer-based discussion among youth about safe gambling habits, and assists in the creation of educational workshops and webinars. Currently, he is running a Digital Media Contest that challenges youth ages 18-24 from across Ontario.
• Gambling & Casinos Hotels and Resorts Leisure & Tourism. 'The annual Armed Services YMCA Art & Essay contest is a compelling look into the lives of the children in military families,' said.
• Make sure the rules are clear on how a winner is chosen and the details of the contest. Then post it somewhere people can find it. Notify winners by email, not social media. Facebook and Twitter are a good way to promote a contest or sweepstakes that you're running, but many social media companies want to avoid liability too.

On June 11, 2020 the virtual red carpet was rolled out to celebrate the youth who created the top five submissions for our third annual YMCA Youth 4 Youth (Y4Y) Digital Media Contest.

We challenged youth ages 18 to 24 from across Ontario to create a poster and/or a video that discussed the blurred lines between gambling and video games. To make it into the top five, each submission was judged by a panel of contest organizers, a jury of youth ages 15 to 18, a public vote, and a survey of over two hundred Ontario secondary school students.

On award day, the team StartBAD Studios was awarded the top prize for their video, and Inha Lee received first place for her poster.

Here’s what our winners had to say about the contest:

First-place video: How pay-to-play can become gambling

Led by their team captain Arshad Mohamed, Akram Hussain, Rohan Ali, and Uzair Shuaib of StartBAD Studios created our top-placing video. It shows how the pay-to-play model (commonly used by game developers to monetize freemium games) is akin to gambling. Namely, gamers need to pay for another chance to try to advance to the next level.

StartBAD Studios’ video also provides harm reduction strategies and directs viewers to the YMCA of Greater Toronto’s Youth Gambling Awareness Program if they’re interested in learning more or in booking a workshop.

As longtime friends, Arshad, Akram, Rohan, and Uzair grew up in the GTA and have been making films for as long as they can remember. Eventually, they formed StartBAD studios, where they create narrative, commercial, and documentary works.

They were drawn to the contest because they wanted to use their filmmaking skills to positively impact their community.

Ymca Gambling Contest Sweepstakes

“We wanted to participate in the contest because most PSAs aren’t relatable to youth. So we were excited to have the opportunity to create a video that gives viewers the perspective of people with these issues in an interesting way.” — Akram Hussain

First-place poster: How the lines are blurred

Inha Lee won top prize for her poster that uses striking visuals to explain how the lines are blurred between gambling and video games — and the impact it can have on people’s lives.

Inha’s poster notes that video games are skill based and gambling games are chance based. So, by featuring gambling activities in video games, players can get confused about whether they’re playing a game of skill or chance.

Ymca Gambling Contest Golf

As a passionate graphic designer, Inha was excited to participate in the contest because it was an opportunity to engage in an activity she loves, while raising awareness of what she believes is a serious problem among youth.

“I ended up participating in the contest because I love posters and have always wanted to create one that had positive influence over other people and discusses important issues.” —Inha Lee

Register for the next round of the contest
Use your creativity to shine a light on gambling issues! We’ll let you know when registration opens for the next round of our Youth 4 Youth Digital Media Contest on our website.