Stop kids gambling
Year 11 student, Lachlan Bull, provides the second in our series of student essays. The topic of gambling was set by his teacher, but Lachlan does know someone who has a gambling addiction. “They never have any spare money—ever—and they are borrowing from others all the time.”
What`s going to happen to the next generation if we don’t stop gambling?
By Lachlan Bull
In this day and age, gambling ads are everywhere. We aren`t going to be able to stop our children from seeing them. However we might be able to minimize our children from seeing these ads.
Gambling ads and odds are everywhere. On YouTube gambling ads play before the video actually starts and on TV if you are watching the footy they will come up on the ads. If you go out at the pub for tea, and in a lot of places, you and your children can see the pokies. At the Kangaroo Flat Sports Club as you go up the stairs and go in the door, you and your children can see the pokies right there. When you walk into the Bendigo Stadium, you walk in the door to have a nice lunch or dinner and you walk straight past the pokies.
Every single day people all around the world lose their jobs, homes, families and everything they own to gambling, all because they don’t know when to stop or they don’t know how to ask for help.
It doesn’t help that nowadays children can access online gambling anywhere, anytime and anyplace. You don’t need to have an ID to do this either. Children don’t understand the real value of money. They can just get their Mum or Dad`s credit card and use that money without knowing what they are really doing. Are sure you are watching what your children are doing on the internet closely?
Because the internet is everywhere, maybe parents should limit their children’s internet usage. It might seem like the wrong thing to do because I`m always playing my PS4, but I still play two different sports. I`m doing well at school as well. However I know some kids that don’t really leave the house because they are too busy on the internet. They even have days off school because they were up to midnight playing PlayStation. They even spent $400 of their Mum’s money on a video game. This brings me back to the point that children don’t understand the real value of money.
Keep an eye on your children’s online internet usage because they might be gambling and you wouldn’t even know it. People’s lives are affected every day. Don’t let your child be one of them.
