AIBU to think a birthday scratch card win was harmless fun?

Scratch cards are hardly getways to online gambling addictions surely? Your friend is being ridiculous

Nonsense, Google it. I proxy sale is the purchasing of age restricted products for someone under age. It doesn't matter who's paying. Do you think you'd be allowed to buy vodka to "gift" a 10 year old if you were using your own credit card?

We used to bet on it as kids in the early 70s, I certainly wouldn’t now.

It's not really a proxy sale because it's a gift. The op isn't taking money from kids outside the newsagents to buy scratch cards for them. What the op has done is perfectly legal and acceptable and just a bit of fun.

The way people are talking you'd think she'd given them crack.

People on Mumsnet are so boring sometimes. Do they also refuse to let their kids play the raffle or tombola at the school fete as well?

Not the same thing. You can't win hard cash on raffles or tombola. Just a choice of candle, tin of beans, things that people were given as gifts and don't want, bottle of wine etc.

I don't think I'd have given my kids a lottery ticket at 13. No, I'm sure I wouldn't.
I do know someone who gambles too much though so maybe it's that.

Do you buy raffle tickets at the school fair? Do you count that as gambling? Do you own premium bonds?

Buying a scratch card for a birthday is on the same level imo, the chances are she would have won nothing ( see above) which would have been a salutary lesson in the perils of gambling!

Unfortunately, by buying a winning card the OP has probably set her DD on the road to ruin.

( and yes, I do understand that for many gambling is a dangerous addiction,and I feel sorry for those wha are not able to control their addiction)

I wouldn't buy one for a child, I agree with the OP's friend due to the young age.

Not a big deal tbh

Your friend isn't over the top to have her own way of parenting and her own decisions to make.

You can see from this thread that plenty of parents wouldn't be happy with it either so it's clearly just something people agree to disagree on. She didn't tell you off, she said she wouldn't do it for her own child.

It's just different choices for different parents.

What is the stance of grabber machines as again a big favourite of ours (I am an expert) 😁

My friend won’t even let her child do the 2p pushers in the bowling arcade in case it leads to gambling. I think you’re fine OP.

Yeah I have p bonds for both my kids. One has won £100 so far at age 5. I will prepare myself for her life of crime.......

People are weird! This is fine.

Scratch cards, yes. Grand national, no because we know it’s cruel.

It's technically illegal to buy them for someone under 18, it's a proxy sale. We sell them where I work and I would get in a lot of trouble if i knowingly sold one that was being given to a minor. The same thing applies to prizes as well so don't mention it to the cashier when you go to claim it op.

That said my personal opinion is that I don't really care, I don't think it's a big deal. Unless I'm at work.

Really surprised by some of the replies! It's only a bit of fun! Do you not let your kids pick a horse to bet on for the grand national? We have always done this.

Aside from fruit machines, (12%) scratch cards (6%) are thought to be one of the biggest gateway sto gambling for children.

Consequently they have raised the purchase age to 18, which is also the age you can claim a prize.

It really isn’t harmless fun, and is also illegal.

Oh no OP it’s a gateway drug is gambling. Today it’s a scratch card, tomorrow she’ll be shooting speedballs in an alley

My 10 and 11 year old love a scratch card for Christmas and birthdays!

Do people who condone it and say it's one step to gambling not allow their child to take part in any tombola or raffle activity, or bingo, or let their kids play on arcades on holiday?!

Also regarding the issue of siblings, surely the same issue applies to things like premium bonds. I don't see people kicking off about people buying those for their kids but the same issue could happen with one kid winning big and then the issue of whether it's their savings to keep or if they need to share it with siblings.

It is not allowed in some religions. Could that be the case?
I would suggest you have a nice talk with your daughter about the dangers of gambling. It ruins a lot of lives a lot of families

I used to wait outside the betting shop while my grandad went in, we played cards for pennies at Christmas, National Lottery wasn't a thing but I remember rubbing off other scratchcards with a coin, we always picked a horse in the Grand National, and I've never been into gambling. What a melodramatic thread.

There's no age limit for using scratch cards. The age limit is for buying them.

Well, she wasn't gambling because she didn't buy the card so she had nothing to lose.

So she just doesn't tell them it was a gift to her daughter when she goes to collect the money?!

Some very dramatic replies on this thread.

I hardly think a scratchcard once a year is going to do much harm.

So your friend would never by a raffle ticket, then?