now if an adult who knows how much he money he has and knows how much he can afford to lose can go bankrupt gambling, losig hundreds of thousands of dollars more than he has then what would happen to a child.
children are niave and dont really know the value of money. he might put 50 on the account get that up to 200$ and then lose it .he would tell himself that since he was able to make so much out of his 50 he might deposite 100 next time then 150 then 500 and the amount he puts in get larger as he gets older thinking he can beat the system
yet he keeps on losing and losing and thinks he is too good to be losing
depositing 4 digit sums and losing that.he is too young and foolish to know when to stop.so it continues and continues and he loses and loses and soon enough he is addicted and in debt,all this before 23? thats no way t start of ur adult life is it
1 question whould u like ur child to have a gambling problem?
OK, first off, let me put this out there. I think the parent should have the ultimate say. I already said I wouldn't mind it if you needed parental permission to gamble under 18. My parents know I play poker, and although they weren't crazy about the whole online thing, they said as long is it was my own money and my grades didn't suffer, it was fine. I held a 3.8 through high school and although sometimes my sleep suffers, my work that I have to get done does not.
I think everyone here is taking the wrong attitude though towards this law. The question isn't "why should we let a kid gamble?", it's "is there any reason we should ban kids from gambling?". Adults sometimes have problems eating right, let's ban adults over 50 from eating candy bars, because we don't want them to have a heart attack. My grandpa died in his 40s because he smoked. Why should I and other kids have to lose their grandpas so early? Let's ban adults from smoking.
Now here's my support for the whole thing. First of all, minors cannot spend what they don't have. How many banks do you know of that approves loans to kids? And if a friend loans money that the other kid can't pay back, it serves him right. Kids can't go into debt, so the worst that can happen is they spend everything they have. Out of most of my friends in college, they pretty much all had summer jobs at least. Most of them have to call their parents when they need money. When I was back on Thanksgiving break, my mom was telling me about how our neighbor asked her about sending me money, because their kid kept begging for money. Basically most of these kids have already blown all they could. They bought new cell phones, paid for nights out, etc. Meanwhile I'm paying for all my books (which for those not familiar with cost, was ~$700 for me last semester, hoping for it to be a bit cheaper this semester because I'll be able to sell a few of my books used, but it's still a good chunk of money, over a thousand bucks each year at least), and my parents have not sent me a dime.
So basically, if I had been the irresponsible kid you talked about earlier, the worst I could have turned out as is the typical college kid, spending all the money I earned and having nothing left. Plus I would have learned a valuable life lesson before I was old enough for it to really kill me. Losing a couple hundred bucks, being all you have, as a minor is not the end of the world (although I'm sure it feels like it). Being an adult and losing 6 figure sums on a gambling problem and having to declare bankruptcy could destroy your life. I would think it's better to learn the lesson the hard way early than the hard way later. I think poker taught me money management, it's a lot of fun, and now I've gotten good enough that it's a good flexible side job. Meanwhile other people gambled by spending their money on nights out, and whatever else a teenager can blow their money on. I'm sitting on a stable money supply, they're sitting on their parents.
My point isn't that poker is good for everyone, but they can't spend what they don't have, and they can spend everything they have on anything else, so why not poker? Get addicted to candy bars and you're fat and broke. The point is the law shouldn't be aimed at saving people from themselves. I realize that minors are treated differently and I can understand laws such as cigarette and alcohol bans for minors. But just because a person CAN get addicted and blow all their money doesn't mean they will, and if a kid can own their own money (this is up to the parent), I see no reason why they can't spend it however they choose. If they earned it and could blow it all on junk food, they should be able to blow it on poker. And the fact that not everyone gets addicted and blows money is the ultimate argument against a universal law. Why should the actions of some have an impact on the laws that have to be followed by all? (this deals with attempts at overall poker bans as well, just because some people can't control themselves the government has to protect EVERYONE)
Sorry this got a bit long, but I just don't understand the gambling ban for minors. If a kid wants to spend money and they have their parents permission, I see no reason to stop them. At worst it's a good life lesson on money management.
:eviltongu
