What is the
Gambling Age
by Jerry "Jet"
Whittaker
April 28, 2006
Age of gambling has risen from 18
to 21 for casinos, card rooms, the state lottery and
scratch tickets, horseracing and bingo games with cash
prizes. Current efforts to raise the gambling age appear
headed toward a task force to sort out the details
regarding the age of the gambling. Companion legislation
in both the House and Senate is getting bogged down in
the artful muddle of questions about whether the age of
the gambling should be increased or not. State
government's pocketbook is affected too, with the dire
estimates on the cost of lost lottery sales, expensive
overhead for redoing tickets and advertising, and the
hit on state budgets, including money to fight problem
gambling.
Kids gambling
Kids gambling studies
suggest the sooner they get started, the riskier it can
be for those disposed to having a problem. Young people
gamble on cards, dice and sports. Long before the
Internet, they were gambling on video games and,
illegally, execute the daily lottery. The advent of
online games and televised poker has increased the
presence of gambling in the youth culture all over
nowadays. Mom and Dad may take comfort the kids are all
sitting around the dining room table playing in Texas
Hold'em and not running around getting in trouble.
Social thinking
Let society send the
message, however belatedly, to slow down and pace
oneself against gambling that is entirely the message
with state after state that raised the drinking age from
18 to 21. Socially endorsed adult pleasures come at an
age with
a bit more maturity. Or perhaps more accurately, a
greater sense of the consequences of excess and
addiction.
Are the casinos, card rooms, lottery games, horse tracks
and bingo halls prepared to argue that they will go
under if the traffic fades from 18-, 19- and
20-year-olds.Part of the issue here is the capacity to
bet big and lose big. No one is going to blow a car
payment or tuition money playing skeeball or fishing for
a stuffed any animal. Let us be honest about the
definitions of games of chance and where the potential
harms exist.
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