Yes, it’s a bit cliché. There are some things we all should’ve been taught by our parents before we had the opportunity to just run right over to the local casino. Things like money management, avoiding UK casino credit, knowing when to walk away, following your ‘gut’ instinct and other small little factors such as these. However, most gamblers are from the school of hard knocks and may find that these lessons were not taught but instead, they were learned the hard way.
Over the last few decades, most gamblers have gotten their first taste of casino bingo gambling at the ripe old age of 18 or some late bloomers as late as the age of 21. A very young age to be exposed to all of the elements of casino gambling and usually these young adults handle themselves with some level of responsibility. However, some of them do not.
New gamblers occasionally get into a casino mindset. Money management isn’t necessary because the credit cards are certainly available and casino credit can be established quickly if you have a job, money in the bank and good credit. Walking away is not an option and missing a free drink is out of the question.
Soon, you have the makings of a gambler spinning out of control when all could have been controlled if mom or dad had warned of days like these. They didn’t and now little Johnny is in debt over $5,000.00.
This is one of the main reasons I have never hidden gambling from my children. Almost every time I’m in a casino on the weekends I witness a new gambler spinning out of control and if someone had talked to him before a trip to the casino transpired , then chances are , things would have been different.
Casino gambling is rampant and because it is everywhere you look, parents need to teach their kids about recreational gambling. I’m huge on this because it is something that needs to be discussed among young people. And many parents are under the assumption that if they don’t gamble, then their kids won’t gamble. Nothing could be further from the truth. And besides, there is nothing wrong with internet bingo gambling. However, there is something wrong, in this day and age, if parents don’t talk to their kids about responsible gambling at the right age. If they don’t, then most likely they will, after their baby boy or girl has ran up a very substantial debt on the credit card.
The good news is that many young people gambling for the first time still exercise some self-control. Recently, in a Mississippi casino, I was at a craps table where there was a crowd of young girls playing craps. One of them apparently had lousy luck and had tried every game in the casino before joining her friends at the table.
I overheard one of the girls ask her friend if she was going to play and she said no that she had spent her ‘gambling budget’. This made me want to run right out and call her parents and congratulate them for raising their daughter to be a level-headed young adult. Later, I saw two of her friends standing at the ATM apparently down on their luck and looking to turn it all around and neither one of them looked too happy having spoiled their trip by overindulging in the gaming atmosphere.
While I’m certain many of us have been there and done that, I believe it would be safe to say that those of us who have ever seen the bottom of our pocketbooks would hate to see someone else have an empty purse. And the great thing about the older and wiser gamblers is that they can change the gaming of tomorrow simply by talking to future gamblers about smart gaming. Gamblers who practice money management have a lot more fun and usually return to gamble again. The players who spend their entire bankroll in a New York minute are less likely to think of gambling as a fun outlet of entertainment and who could blame them?
