Re: Chicago Tribune story on kids and poker
 

I think I would rather have a 16 year old kid hit rock bottom and be in debt way over his head (a couple of $100 according to the article) than a 25 year old with a $30K job for a couple $10,000.

I don't think that a 25 year old is any less likely to get in over head or more mature if he has not be exposed to the downside of risks. There have been a lot of people who have posted about huge losses or quiting their jobs to play professionally with a $10,000 bankroll and no living expenses saved up.

I do think gambling and the lure of easy money needs a learning process. An adult can teach his kids.

Just a bit more rant. Parents always seem to act like they are raising children. Not true. You are raising adults that are currently children. It is your job to educate them in all aspects of being an adult.

Just my .02

Re: Chicago Tribune story on kids and poker
 

[ QUOTE ]
I think I would rather have a 16 year old kid hit rock bottom and be in debt way over his head (a couple of $100 according to the article) than a 25 year old with a $30K job for a couple $10,000.

I don't think that a 25 year old is any less likely to get in over head or more mature if he has not be exposed to the downside of risks. There have been a lot of people who have posted about huge losses or quiting their jobs to play professionally with a $10,000 bankroll and no living expenses saved up.

I do think gambling and the lure of easy money needs a learning process. An adult can teach his kids.

Just a bit more rant. Parents always seem to act like they are raising children. Not true. You are raising adults that are currently children. It is your job to educate them in all aspects of being an adult.

Just my .02

[/ QUOTE ]

My thoughts exactly.

Re: Chicago Tribune story on kids and poker
 

Mine too.

A kid busting out and losing his allowance learns an excellent lesson and very very cheaply. An adult who ruins his life might not be able to come back again. Seriously. Suicide, ruined marriages, drug addiction...truly ruinous things. A kid who loses his allowance or a couple of hundred bucks or so from his savings account might get, oh...laughed at by his peers and yelled at and grounded by his parents...maybe. Maybe. Either way, it's a great lesson at a dirt cheap price, and maybe it will never come to that either.

People also say children are more vulnerable to temptation, but I don't believe they're more vulnerable to the kind of temptation poker is about. Adults grow up in a society that constantly flaunts material wealth in the most in-your-face way possible, but very few adults live anywhere near the way America portrays itself, and most live, as the saying goes, lives of quiet desperation. The pull of what poker can do for you is in that context can be enormous, especially considering the work most adults have to do just to maintain a non-rotten standard of living and a little hope in their lives, and maybe in the lives of their children. I think the draw to the impossible dream is much stronger to the adult because there's so much more at stake.

Remember the kid here who posted he was winning and was going to buy an iPod? That's what a kid's motivation is...some cool stuff, some fun maybe. If he doesn't get it, oh well...he didn't have it before either, so big deal. And he doesn't work for a living or need a job. Win or lose, in the kid's perspective, who cares? Win or lose can be life and death to an adult, not getting grounded or laughed at by his snot-nosed friends. I'm much more worried for adults than kids.

And I think anything that trains kids to focus their concentration, have discipline and honest self-evaluation, and try to achieve long-term goals(and winning poker is very much a long-term proposition) is a fantastic training ground for adult life. I'd be proud if my kid took on a tough project that made him really have to think and did well in it, and poker is tougher than many.

And playing it in the schoolyard is, well, fun. Nickels and dimes, quarters, whatever. Poker is very social and a lot of fun. Plus it's hard to do well drunk or stoned, so it can keep them out of trouble. Beats driving around too fast, getting in fights, shoplifting, watching t.v. and playin Nintendo, and so many other things kids do. Heck, it even gets them out of the house and socializing with lots of people. I think poker is ideal for kids.

Re: Chicago Tribune story on kids and poker
 

whatever happened to just drinking until 1st period?