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

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It was my daughter’s birthday this week, and I got her a scratch card just for a bit of fun.

She ended up winning £100 from a £5 card.

I mentioned it to a friend, but she felt quite strongly that she’d never let her child do anything like that, as she sees it as gambling.

It felt a bit over the top to me, to me it was just a harmless bit of fun for a special occasion....

Is she being over top?

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

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.

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.

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.

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

People are weird! This is fine.

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.......

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.

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

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.

Not a big deal tbh

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

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)

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.

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.

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

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?

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

Our kids are older teens now but have been having scratch cards in Christmas stockings / advent calendars since they were small. Also everyone in the family chooses a Grand National horse for a £2 ew bet, we all watch together and kids get any winnings. For my 30th I took our kids and various family friends to the races and took them up each race for a £1 bet and they pocketed the winnings.

Loads of family fun has been had from all of these activities.

It is gambling though.

I was in Halls of Residence at Uni in the 1980s. There were over 200 of us in Halls and we each paid about £20 to a Hall Committee of other students who used the money to pay for parties, newspapers etc. Some of the smart arses on the Committee found out that one of the students there had a gambling problem - he was only 18 at this time and had been gambling since his early teens. His grant was paid to the Uni who basically gave him a weekly allowance from it so he didn't blow the lot in one go. Anyway, the smart arses thought it would be a laugh to make this guy the Hall Committee Treasurer. He withdrew all the money from the bank account, went to the Casino with it, and lost the lot. He also lost his place at uni, and I never saw him again or found out what happened to him.

Although many/most can control their gambling, it can and does wreck lives and it's controlled and age limited for a reason.

They are known to be a gambling starting point. I think it's weird to deny this.

If you tell children “gambling is sinful, end of story”, and nothing else, it becomes tempting forbidden fruit. Why is it suddenly fine and dandy when they turn eighteen?

How about instead educating them on why gambling is bad, or is only bad if you spend too much on it? Also go for the angle that it makes the casino rich. Buying an occasional lottery ticket, or even one a week, is harmless enough, with the important idea of setting oneself a limit on what you spend. We used to debate the national lottery at school, aged thirteen. (It was new, then.)

Is “Around the World in Eighty Days” forbidden reading, in case it puts ideas in children’s heads about betting one’s whole fortune on a highly improbable cause?

And yes, other things are “gambling” when you look at them closely. Premium Bonds. Insurance. Any kind of investment, including property: the value can go down as well as up. Voting, yet we encourage eighteen year olds to do it, and debate lowering the voting age.

The church I grew up with often had raffles. Were those who bought tickets committing the sin of gambling? Usually it was a blindfolded child who would actually make the draw. Was this setting them up for a life of gambling?

I think it's good as a bit of fun. I'd now turn her great fortune to educate her on occasional flutters rather then regular gambling and encourage putting some of it into a bank account or premium bonds to show another way to make money.

I think it's unfortunate that the first time your DD has exposure to gambling, it paid off. To be honest I would worry about that setting expectations in her subconscious. 13 year old brains are still forming, etc.

What's done is done but I don't think I would have done that.

I would never do this but I wouldn’t say anything to someone who did. 13yos are VERY impressionable and I wouldn’t want to encourage it.