Hacker News Reader

If people learnt not to gamble by gambling there would be nobody with gambling problems. Teaching kids how not to gamble by gambling can be pretty bad for people who have addictive personalities, getting that gambling high and wanting to replicate that again and again.

Teaching your kid it is a waste of money and not to endorse that practice might be a better choice.

View on HN

It's not "teaching not to gamble by gambling", obviously. You have to talk with your kid, explain the methods of the gambling games, and stuff like that.

I don't think shielding kids from everything bad in the world usually results in them being able to deal well with bad things in the world as adults.

Not saying they should play those games that have gambling elements. But I also don't find it straightforward to say it is unequivocally bad.

With sweets I know stories of kids who weren't allowed any sweets who developed an excessive sweet tooth later on.

> Teaching your kid it is a waste of money and not to endorse that practice might be a better choice.

how do you teach them? this sort of abstract conversation would have gone in one ear and out the other when I was a kid. I only ever learned stuff was bad if I actually experienced consequences from it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com