Disney is known for their children's movies. You figure that if a movie is by Disney it will be ok for kids. There will be no violence and the most sexual thing will be a harmless schoolgirl/boy crush. I never thought that Disney would condone children gambling. The Lindsey Lohan version of "Disney's The Parent Trap"(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120783/) was on TV the other day. This movie was made in 1998 and the girls are supposed to be around the age of 10. I say girls because Lindsey Lohan plays twins (rather badly, with perhaps the worst British accent I've ever heard, but she redeemed herself in Mean Girls so I'll let this pass).

Why am I mentioning The Parent Trap with Disney and children gambling? In the very beginning of the film the "girls" are packing to go to sleep away camp and both are taking a deck of cards so that they can play poker. Disney even takes it one step further and when California Lindsey shows up at camp she asks her bunk mates if they play poker and when they said no she asks them how much money they brought with them. Not only is Disney having children play poker, but they are having children gamble as well. This is in a movie which I wouldn't have even thought to screen first before letting my child watch it.

Let's do a hypothetical scenario, flashback to 1998 where kids watch Disney's The Parent Trap at the age of 10, the same age as the characters in the movie. They probably already knew about gambling but have always seen it as an adult thing. I watched The Odd Couple (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065329/) growing up and always thought of something that old men did while smoking cigars and drinking hard alcohol. This did not make it appealing to me, so I never pursued it. At the age of 10 I played gin-rummy, solitaire, and occasionally go-fish. I didn't gamble. It didn't even enter my realm of reality. These 10 year olds watching Disney's The Parent Trap get a completely different spectrum of reality. I doubt that any of them thought to themselves, well it was ok in this movie so it's ok in real life. I doubt they even thought of the movie at all. Instead it was something subliminal allowing them to accept it as an ok practice when in reality children should not gamble.

Back to the present and the news for the past few years has been harping about high school students gambling at home. How old would those 10 year olds be today? 18. What a shock that a generation of children who have been taught by Disney that gambling is ok for children would be doing it at home with their friends after school.

Yet the world, especially the United States Congress, is angry at internet casinos and insists that they are teaching our children horrible things and making them addicted to gambling. If these kids weren't exposed to gambling in the first place then this wouldn't even be an issue. Even still, it's not the online casinos which are luring children into gambling. In fact, they are doing their best to discourage children from gambling. Internet casinos, poker rooms, and sports books have age requirements. To pay you need to have an account with a credit card or an alternative deposit method. These are things that most 10 year olds don't have.

What 10 year olds do have is a deck of card and change. This is what they used for gambling in Disney's The Parent Trap. At one point LL dumped out a bag of quarters and when the "twins" played each other they even used nail polish as part of the pot.

Gambling, internet or otherwise, is an entertaining pastime meant for adults. Kids may gamble by playing with marbles out on school tarmacs, but that is the place it should end. Society as a whole needs to be more responsible towards children today. The writer who added poker to a children's movie, the gambling episode of Martha where she has kids on and yet talks about playing for money, and the parents who teach their kids the game in order to increase their math skills but never mention responsible gambling and money management need to take themselves to task. Don't go blaming an innocent bystander when the problem can be solved by looking in a mirror.

eCOGRA is an internet gambling players advocate organization which is sponsored by online casinos. eCOGRA has every casino which carries its certification take a course in how to keep minors out of the casino or poker room. They teach the internet casino managers how to spot a problem gambler and what to do about it. They promote responsible gambling.

I suppose in a way I should be thanking Disney for their contribution to my industry. After all, the 10 year olds watching The Parent Trap back in 1998 are 18 now, which means they are now eligible to legally play in many online casinos. These are young adults which grew up with Poker as a fun entertaining pastime that their parents and society approved of. If society didn't approve then it would never have been written into The Parent Trap. This generation also grew up with the internet as a natural extension of their lives. This means a growing generation of future online gamblers who don't fear putting their information online.

I work for the internet gambling industry so obviously I'm pro-gambling. I just think that children should be taught that gambling with money is for adults. Poker may be your favorite game, and you may want to share your love of the game with your children. That's fair enough, but don't include the financial competitive side of it when they are young. Explain how gambling is a risk. Watch what society is telling our children and recognize the hypocrisy of the US government blaming it all on an industry which is just trying to be recognized as valid.

Posted on: July 25, 2006

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