2 years old kids alone at home for hours, while the father goes gambling

[uneng]

KPHO reports that one of the man’s neighbors called 911 and said 2-year-old twins were running around alone outside a Peoria-area home with an aggressive dog.

The neighbor reportedly told police the twins were outside for roughly 20 minutes, running near the street before he called and brought them inside his house.

...

Court paperwork stated Opdycke initially told police he went to a nearby Taco Bell. He claimed he was gone for 30 minutes, ordering and eating his food at the restaurant while leaving the kids at home.

...

However, when Opdycke’s wife arrived, he asked to speak to officers alone and changed his story.

Opdycke confessed that he didn’t go to Taco Bell and instead, he went to Desert Diamond Casino around noon, five hours before police were called.

...

During a search, authorities said they found Opdycke had winning tickets from the casino and over $2,000. He was booked on one count of child abuse.

Father arrested after leaving 2-year-old twins home alone for hours to go gambling, police say

The urge this man felt to gamble was so high, that he didn't even measure the consequences of leaving two 2 years old kids at home alone to gamble at a local casino for 5 hours straightforward. Imagine the state of mind of this man to give more value to his gambling session than to the lives of his two young kids who could need him anytime.

Luckly there was an attentive neighboor to call the police, otherwise the dangerous dog or any other potential threat on the streets could have severely harmed those kids.

[Slow death]

If any company does more in-depth research into how many parents leave their young children and go to bars to drink beer with friends, I believe we will see that the results of the research will be frightening results, because for many years many families have been fighting because of situations like that of parents abandoning their children because they went to consume alcohol. but you never see them on TV or in the newspapers talking about these many cases. In countries like the USA and even in many countries in Europe there are a greater number of young people addicted to drugs, I'm talking about women and men addicted to drugs who have sex with many people and end up having children and then abandoning these children because they use drugs.

But this is not talked about on news channels and TV. They probably don't say this because governments must maintain a good image that they are fighting drugs, so the news channels won't talk about this subject, but when there is a case where a man left his children and went to play in a casino, then the News channels keep talking about this in a way as if it were the first case in which parents abandoned their children. In my opinion, although it is very wrong for a father to abandon his children, the reality in many developed countries is that this type of thing happens a lot and is now seen as something normal in everyday life.

Certain news channels have been campaigning against gambling and casinos and their news does not include impartial information, it is always biased. It is unlikely that in a sad news story like this we will see any news channel being fair and saying that this type of thing also happens very frequently involving people addicted to alcohol and drugs, the news channels just post this type of news as if they were cases that only happen with people who engage in gambling

[Kavelj22]

This is one of the bad examples of excessive addiction to gambling, which may cause the patient to enter a state of indifference and disdain for everything that may prevent him from satisfying his addictive desires. Such people are not qualified to take care of even a cat. The problem is that in most cases, her behavior cannot be controlled and often appears normal.

It is unfortunate that these stories happen, but it is even more unfortunate that there are worse cases that we do not hear about and that do not reach the general public.

[lombok]

Men are looked at for their speech, manners and responsibility. If you can't do that well, it's better not to get married and have children. When we have a child, it means that responsibility for him is more important than gambling activities which of course have a bad impact, for the father, for the child and also have a negative impact on his finances. No matter how strong the desire to gamble, we should not ignore our responsibilities as fathers. This is truly an act that cannot be justified, due to his nature and stupidity, once again gambling will have a negative impact because of his actions.

[salad daging]

This will add a bad vibe to gambling especially to the point of calling the police and getting on the news meaning this is in an emergency situation where a father left a 2-year-old child but a father can't resist the urge to go to the local casino so this is behavior that is not worthy of an example or maybe a man is already heavily addicted.

Either way this 2 year old child is still under the supervision of parents, then leaving him to gamble then this is very unethical I know this is upset to see this news even though it happened last year what I saw in the article still I can't imagine what if it was my own child.

Fortunately for me, I am not addicted to the worse, gambling for pleasure when there is money and will not sacrifice anything.

[Sim_card]

I don't know what to say but this is not good. He should put the safety of his kids first instead of putting gamble first. I will say that the man is addicted to gambling and that was why he did such thing becau6when you are addicted to gambling, you will allow it control you, instead of you controlling yourself. I am happy that nothing happend to the twins, this is why I prefer online casino that you can gamble from your comfort zone.

[electronicash]

but he won $2,000 isn't that enough to forgive his fault?   

why didn't he just hire a nanny for a day if it was too itchy to play for a day, i think he can afford to pay a nanny. but now that he is in this situation, do you think will the kids be taken by the social service?

more bad news coming to him now that the authorities are going to look into this couple. and it's been in the news also this is going to get worse.

[Quidat]

The urge this man felt to gamble was so high, that he didn't even measure the consequences of leaving two 2 years old kids at home alone to gamble at a local casino for 5 hours straightforward. Imagine the state of mind of this man to give more value to his gambling session than to the lives of his two young kids who could need him anytime.

Luckly there was an attentive neighboor to call the police, otherwise the dangerous dog or any other potential threat on the streets could have severely harmed those kids.

Very sad, very sad! This is what gambling addiction could really give out on which it could really possibly make you do things which arent right anymore.Why?
Your mind is already that thinking so much about gambling on which even your own kids been leaved out into your own home or place without any parent supervision then
this is something not a thing to be done to those people who are on their right minds. It is really just that right that he would really be facing up those consequences
it is really just that right that he should really be getting in prison based up on that irresponsible act that he had done. Regrets do always at the end.

[iv4n]

...
Luckly there was an attentive neighboor to call the police, otherwise the dangerous dog or any other potential threat on the streets could have severely harmed those kids.

Luckily... this is a story with a happy ending.

But the reality is sad... these things happen often, and sometimes the ending is terrible. The first story like this one I heard (or maybe read, or saw on the news) many years ago (+20 years), when a woman left two children in the car while gambling in a casino. As far as I remember, it was somewhere in America, summer and high temperatures took their toll and those two children did not get away. The woman gambled for hours and completely forgot about the children in the high heat locked in the car.

Since that time I have seen many similar stories... something I can't fully understand, how much someone needs to be "mentally fucked up" to do something like this? I have two little kids so these stories hit me, I can't imagine how someone can do something like this.

[Yatsan]

This is unfortunate and sad. However, I don't view this as something directly with gambling but more of a display of parental irresponsibility and it just happened that gambling is the task being done by the parent. But I do understand the sentiment an viewpoint of others who associate the cited news to gambling addiction. It is indeed not normal to leave your children especially with the mentioned age, alone. They could be subject for mental stability tests to check if they are thinking with rationalization. We do all know how a parent should be aware of what their kids are doing and it will never be valid to leave them alone no matter what activity they are doing.  If it is an emergency, they should still asked someone to look for their child, however gambling was reasoned and that makes this a serious concern.

[darkangel11]

It happens from time to time when your parents are sociopaths.

It reminds me of this story:
An Ohio mother has been charged with murder after leaving her 16-month-old baby daughter home alone for 10 days as she went on vacation. Kristel Candelario, 31, was arrested and charged after her baby girl, Jailyn, was found unresponsive at their Cleveland home, police said
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/ohio-baby-mother-murder-vacation-b2363678.html

There was also a famous case of a man who put his child in a microwave because it was crying.
Some people should not only never have kids, but also have all their rights taken away.

Don't read this story the wrong way because it's not about gambling. It's about being unfit to bear children. He could just as well go to his girlfriend, shopping, or to the movies.

[Potato Chips]

To be fair, the man's just trash -- sorry for the wording but I have to say it lol.

What can we expect from a man with a history of child abuse? of course, he's not gonna be the type who would gamble in moderation.

In addition, this story too is a serious case of child neglect, another form of child abuse and something seriously punished in many places.

[Z-tight]

The man is simply irresponsible, not only because of his gambling addiction. If you look closely you'll find out that this man is also irresponsible in other things as well, no responsible person would leave their kids unattended to. The man needs to visit a psychologist, who will counsel him and educate him on how to control his addiction and be responsible or else he could lose his kids and people who are dear to him.

[topbitcoin]

This is one of the negative impacts of gambling that is carried out uncontrollably and responsibly. Or in other words, this is a bad impact of addiction to gambling. And of course this is not a surprising incident, because those who are addicted to gambling will always prioritize their gambling behind other more important activities, including caring for their children.

Liking gambling and liking to place bets is not a bad thing, but when done excessively and without any control, this activity will be very detrimental and can hinder other activities. And of course this is a valuable lesson for all of us, especially for those who are married and have children. Because whether gambling is good or bad, it depends on who is doing it. As wise gamblers, we should know when to gamble and when not to. Being able to differentiate between what is a responsibility and what is just entertainment. And it's good if you already have a family, to reduce the time spent gambling.

[Zlantann]

This is not good behaviour for a father with young children. The children are too young to even be left alone for one second. They can engage in harmful activities if you let them stay alone for a few seconds. The man is a gambling addict that was why he can't control his urge to place bets. This is where online gambling is helpful because you don't need to leave your home to place a bet. You can place any bet from the comfort of your home as you also perform your role as a father. He won a good amount of money but I guess he will be more concerned about his court case than celebrating his win. This serves as a lesson to parents, they should always place their family responsibility above gambling.

[nimogsm]

but he won $2,000 isn't that enough to forgive his fault?   

why didn't he just hire a nanny for a day if it was too itchy to play for a day, i think he can afford to pay a nanny. but now that he is in this situation, do you think will the kids be taken by the social service?

more bad news coming to him now that the authorities are going to look into this couple. and it's been in the news also this is going to get worse.

After reading the article, I also had a thought: why didn’t he hire a nanny and go play and spend his time if he wanted so badly? Now his family is in big trouble and there will be long proceedings with the child welfare service, monetary fines, and so on.
In this situation, the only plus is that the neighbor turned out to be vigilant and called the cops in time when he sensed something was wrong. And the man should overcome his gambling addiction and will have to apologize for a long time to his wife and children in the future.

[Dewi Aries]

If you look at the situation told by the OP about a father who is willing to leave his toddler son just to go to the casino to gamble then I think the level of addiction of this person is really at a chronic level which means it is very severe, as we know that gamblers who are addicted usually they don't think about anything and often do things that are out of control or don't make sense rationally and are desperate to do anything just to realize their desire to gamble, like the man described above, in my opinion this is really an unexpected event that is worrying.

Basically anyone is free to gamble if they really have money to bet but if the situation is not favorable then it is clearly better to postpone your desire to gamble, anyway there are still other times that we can use, do not let something more important in our lives just disappear like a child who was abandoned by the man just to gamble. Therefore we must really have the right understanding about gambling because if you come with the wrong point of view then maybe you will be one of the gamblers who will become the next victim of addiction.

[Stalker22]

Its just plain irresponsible for a dad to leave his 2-year-old twins home alone for hours to go gamble.  His gambling problem obviously mattered more than keeping his kids safe.  Thank goodness a worried neighbor stepped in and contacted the police.  If not, those poor children could have been in real danger.  

I hope that this man gets the help that he needs to address his gambling addiction and that he never puts his children at risk again.

[Raflesia]

snip-

The urge this man felt to gamble was so high, that he didn't even measure the consequences of leaving two 2 years old kids at home alone to gamble at a local casino for 5 hours straightforward. Imagine the state of mind of this man to give more value to his gambling session than to the lives of his two young kids who could need him anytime.

Luckly there was an attentive neighboor to call the police, otherwise the dangerous dog or any other potential threat on the streets could have severely harmed those kids.

This kind of thing sometimes makes gambling a bad view because in the end there are still a lot of people who do not gamble responsibly and only care about their own ego so that their gambling desires are well expressed but without caring about the surrounding conditions.
Honestly, this kind of action is a bad behavior and im quite sad to see something like this especially when it comes to children.

We may be bad at being a gambler but family is important, hopefully something like this will not happen to us because as bad as we are, family must be number one.
In addition, this should be a reminder that gambling responsibly and of course must have good sense because gambling is not a mistake but making gambling a necessity that cannot be released and putting aside other things as happened in this case is a bad attitude from someone because gambling is only used as an excuse in this case.

[freedomgo]

Great father. LOL!

I am a parent and I would never do that. Although I gamble but I always prioritize the welfare of my family especially my children. And to think they are only 2 years old without a parent, that's a big crime as anything could happen. This father who got arrested because of this should be put in jail for an extended amount of time for him to learn from his mistakes and reflect from his gambling addiction as well.

I'm pretty sure the government will find a way to take care of this 2 years old twins, so there's nothing to worry now. This man doesn't deserve to be a father at all, at least on the time being when he is still in the state of gambling addiction as we never know what could happen next time around, it could be worse than that, so it has to be prevented from happening.