Did Anyone Here Start Gambling While Still a Minor?

[Obulis]

To start gambling as a minor is very risky, some people has their priority misplaced and are addicted to gambling today because of their starting, that doesn't mean all the addicts start as minor. But this exposure has caused more harm than good. Psychologically, minors being exposed to money making (childs labor) usually has negative effects that many or some grow up with and this is lesser compared to the effects that gambling usually have on minors. Some will steal money and property to be sold just to gamble and other negative influences.

In my case, I was already in my 20s and in the higher institution when I started gambling, I guess this stage can't be seen or considered as minor any more. Even on that, I still do it almost secretly avoiding some talks from family. The winning of other people and the way my predictions will some times go all green leaving nothing but "if I had placed bet now I would have won this slip" made me to start gambling. In as much as for fun, I also hope for that all green slips.

[Alex077]

My grandfather had a small gambling place in our town, you know not a real casino, just a small local setup. Sometimes I was asked to watch the players and I would get a small commission whenever someone won. Because of that, I slowly became interested and eventually tried gambling myself.
But in my case, being exposed early made me understand the risks, emotions, and self-control better.

Being in gambling environment at the age of 10 may have helped you understand mechanics and emotion of game. But I couldn't believe that it increased your self control. I don't know if your grandfather's environment really taught you discipline, or did he normalize gambling from young age? Results of these two may seem same from outside, but from psychological point of view, it is very different.

You yourself have survived the gambling board & discovered yourself controlled, that's why you think that childhood environment made you strong. I have seen most of the children around my area who were exposed to gambling or betting before age of 18, fall into serious gambling addictions at their mature age! I actually don't agree with dragging minor into gambling, at this age they are very tender and can make any emotional decision at any time.

[BALIK]

I know gambling as a minor is risky, and I’m not saying minors should gamble. But in my case, being exposed early made me understand the risks, emotions, and self-control better.

At the age of 10, Prefrontal Cortex of any child's is not fully developed. And you may know that this Prefrontal Cortex control our logic and decision making ability.

At that age, if any child receive commission or raw money after winning then the dopamine spike that will occur in his brain will not teach him any risk management. Rather, it will make his brain addicted to short-cut money and dopamine. As for you maybe you were too lucky like lottery winner that you did not go to extreme lengths. But I think it would be suicidal for most kids.

My family never let me come into contact with thing like gambling as child, so there is no story like yours in my life. And I do not want my children to gamble at such young age, I want them to be well educated first and then they will understand for themselves what is good and what is bad for them.

[mitchr4]

I also used to play when still a minor, but back then it wasn't with real money. It started with betting using marbles, playing something like baccarat but with domino cards instead. It was pretty fun, but I eventually got addicted, sometimes spent my pocket money on marbles after losing. That's also how gambling got introduced into my life, eventually leading to learning about several gambling games and online gambling platforms.

[Charles-Tim]

Gambling is something that's not new to me either, because when i was 2 years old and upward, most of the friends I had were always people who were older than me, so I'm mostly exposed to something that's beyond my age, and if i could remember correctly, I have been watching adult movies and coming home late during that age.

Are you sure about this? I think you make mistake with your age, probably you meant 12 and not 2 because a 2 year old boy may not remember when he was two when he has grown older.

Therefore, my gambling life started with dice among friends.

I think this probably is one of what young people below 18 are using to gamble. I saw many young people gambling with dice when I was at their age.

[DubemIfedigbo001]

Who here started gambling when they were still a minor?

Already in my 40s now, and gambling is not really new to me since I was exposed to it when I was still a kid, maybe around 10 years old.

I started gambling earlier than this, maybe around 7 or 8. Being raised in a rough neighborhood had a lot of influence on me. I grew up seeing elderly ones always place side bets to do the most little things like weight lifting, playing soccer games like SEGA, Nintendo Game boy e.t.c, or even to toast a lady, so it felt normal and we continued in that fashion.

We still gamble in church bazaar settings as well. I believe the environment where I grew influenced me to start gambling very early because most things felt like a competition and placing side bets was just a norm. I also had access to money as a small boy since I started selling armored fruit right from my Primary 3.

[Dunamisx]

I was not privileged to gamble as a minor, in fact it was through the influence of my friend while in school that got me into gambling, but it was such a pity that I never had an opportunity of winning as at then, all we do is just to risk playing with the home of winning and at the end of the day we don't, I've seen a number of my university colleagues who gambles with their tuition fee, thinking they could take advantage to double the money or even have more by gambling.

[Japinat]

I was not privileged to gamble as a minor, in fact it was through the influence of my friend while in school that got me into gambling, but it was such a pity that I never had an opportunity of winning as at then, all we do is just to risk playing with the home of winning and at the end of the day we don't, I've seen a number of my university colleagues who gambles with their tuition fee, thinking they could take advantage to double the money or even have more by gambling.

Then you're lucky, because we never know what you could have experienced if you really started gambling when you were still a minor. There's a reason why gambling is prohibited for minors, their decision-making is still immature, they can easily be tempted, lose focus and possibly become addicted.

So I think you should be thankful for that. As for me, I did experience gambling when I was younger, but it was mostly just card games and no money was involved.

[qwertyup23]

I wouldn't say that I started gambling as a MINOR but there was an experience that opened the floodgates of my "addiction" to gambling.

I shared this story before but let me share it again-

When I was young, my father and grandfather used to own a cockfarm for fighting chickens. We used to have this mini arena inside our farm where they would cross-breed different chickens and even breed the winning "bloodline" of a chicken that previously won on tournaments which was aired on national television in the Philippines.

There was a time that my father suddenly invited me and my older brother to that arena where thousands of players participated. I was young and I had $10 during that time because that was the birthday gift that my father gave me. So before the battle starts, there are two (2) opposing sides where people would bet (either "meron" or "wala"). Unfortunately, my brother coerced me into betting and I laid my bet on the "meron" chicken which ultimately lost the challenge.

After that experience, I became curious as to the nature of gambling and on how it operated. Well, I would say that my experience opened and sparked my addiction towards this act like what I am currently doing now.

[AmaGold70]

Personally, I was not exposed to gambling as a minor, before I started gambling I was already using my money to gamble as an adult, and not begging money from parents or anyother person to gamble. As we all know, there is inherent danger that is being linked to minors gambling. At first, as a minor, gaining full control or responsibility in your gambling lifestyle becomes very difficult, you can easily get addicted, and hard to control,  and I think this is the more reason why there is very serious warning about minors getting exposed to gambling. This is something we should avoid as parents, and once you spot your child gambling as a minor, you should be be able to unleash disciplinary actions on that child, because that is the only way you can make that child sane, and responsible.

[cryptomaniac_xxx]

Who here started gambling when they were still a minor?

For me it's more on the school as me and my friends are betting on local basketball league. So before the game and when we are still in school we will have a friend bet and then watch the game that night at home and bring stories about it tomorrow and see who won.

So probably most of us might have been influence in our home or in the school with peer pressure to gamble at some point. And then carry this over when we are all adult with job and getting paid handsomely to go and play to land base casinos and now thru crypto base online games.

[Leahized]

I know gambling as a minor is risky, and I’m not saying minors should gamble. But in my case, being exposed early made me understand the risks, emotions, and self-control better.

It is not possible to say exactly at what age I started gambling. But when many people in my area gambled, I enjoyed it from the sidelines. Although I was inspired by their games and gambled with my friends. But not for any money because we didn't have any then. However, that golden past is not to be forgotten. But at that time I was not aware of any risk or self-control.

on the other hand, as an adult, I started gambling in casinos. And some restrictions in my state make it impossible to use physical casinos. So online casino is only available for gambling. But the past seems better to me than the present because then there was no risk of addiction.

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

I know gambling as a minor is risky, and I’m not saying minors should gamble. But in my case, being exposed early made me understand the risks, emotions, and self-control better.

Your own case is better, you had someone around to guide you but the way it is now, kids have access to their phones, they watch so many videos online including casino ads and by seeing those ads, they could decide to try open account and start gambling without any guide, that is how the harm is done. I remember a topic on this board, the OP said he has introduced his kid to gambling but he was there to also guid him and also teach him how to be responsible, it's similar to your case.

I started gambling when I was above 18 years old and I almost got addicted, I wonder how worse it could have been if I started when I was a minor.

[Agbe]

Okay so why do you need minor gamblers here now? Anything? Gambling is not something that hide in the society but it is visible to everyone in the society and it is only well discipline and determination of a child to avoid gambling. When you go to the local markets, you would see different kind of gambling center and you would be tempted to play of you don't have the strong resistance mind. And that is where most of the market women lost their money and go home with empty pulse or bags. And have problems with their husbands.

And I believed I have attempted to gamble when I was small in the market game. It was magic whot game. The guy mixed them and ask bettors to picked the correct one and we that were watching would see the right card and motivated to pick the correct one but you have to stake first before he will alloy you to pick and if you pick, it would be the wrong one. Therefore everyone has experienced from one way to the other in gambling. But coming to full gambling activities, it is recently that I have started.

[Questat]

It is not possible to say exactly at what age I started gambling. But when many people in my area gambled, I enjoyed it from the sidelines. Although I was inspired by their games and gambled with my friends. But not for any money because we didn't have any then. However, that golden past is not to be forgotten. But at that time I was not aware of any risk or self-control.

on the other hand, as an adult, I started gambling in casinos. And some restrictions in my state make it impossible to use physical casinos. So online casino is only available for gambling. But the past seems better to me than the present because then there was no risk of addiction.

You might not remember exactly when you started gambling, but you would probably know if you were already gambling while you were still a minor or not. Those small sideline bets can already be the starting point, the more you get involved, the more your interest in gambling can grow.

Things were very different before. In my case, accessing online gambling was almost impossible, I could probably make an account but depositing and withdrawing money was really difficult. It only became easier when crypto was introduced, especially when casinos started offering more varieties of games.

Back then the usual gambling games were more popular, while sportsbooks were already around too. So for me, that was really when I started gambling more seriously, although yes, I also gambled a little as a minor but nothing severe.

[Smartprofit]

I started gambling at 16.🙋

I bought lottery tickets at the grocery store (at the checkout). To find out if you'd won, you had to scratch the protective film off the ticket with a coin.

I dreamed of winning the grand prize: $200,000. However, despite buying a lot of lottery tickets, I never won the grand prize. However, I won smaller prizes of $1 or $2 quite often.

Finally, I got fed up, took a calculator, and calculated my win-loss ratio. Even though I won often, they were all small amounts. I spent more money buying lottery tickets than I won. When I realized this, I stopped buying lottery games.

After that, I didn't gamble for a long time until one day I started playing roulette.💁 But that's a whole other story...

[L E G E N D A R Y]

When I was still a minor, I literally didn’t know anything about gambling, maybe I knew there was a thing called gambling but I didn’t just have interest in it. Although there was this time a classmate wanted to pitch it to me, and I almost had interest, but the more I tried to understand it, the more confused I got, so I just zeroed out on my mind on it, not until I was much older, and had more interest in football, and that kinda open my perception of what gambling really was all about.

[Saltysugar99]

I have never gambled while I was  not old enough . I first started betting when I started earning. Since then I have been betting regularly but I have never gambled aggressively which has caused me a lot of financial loss. I see many minors who start betting even before they start earning. Their emotions are not under control. They can become addicted in a very short time. Then they suffer financially and that pressure affects the family of that gambler. That is why I think it is better to stay away from betting at a young age. After a person is old enough and mentally mature, when he earns , he learns to take responsibility and also has enough understanding about fund management, then that person will be able to bet responsibly. Most people suffer big losses while betting before. And every parent should keep  in monitoring on their children so that they never get addicted to something as risky as betting.

[Promocodeudo]

I was not privileged to gamble as a minor, in fact it was through the influence of my friend while in school that got me into gambling, but it was such a pity that I never had an opportunity of winning as at then, all we do is just to risk playing with the home of winning and at the end of the day we don't, I've seen a number of my university colleagues who gambles with their tuition fee, thinking they could take advantage to double the money or even have more by gambling.

I think the op wanted to know those who gambled during their minor age, I don't get where being privileged to gamble as a minor is coming, so are you saying if you had gambled as a minor, you're being prevailed?
I didn't start gambling as minor, i prefer to keep when I started and how it all started to myself, I don't know if I have said it earlier, however, in one way or the other, majority of gamblers, started through the influence of their friends or maybe how popular gambling is in the environment where they live.
One thing I can remember from the day I started gambling is that, i got to understand gambling very well and the possibility getting addicted if one fail to control him or herself.

[Razmirraz]

A lot of people get into gambling young because of family or the environment they grew up in. That stuff sticks with you. As you have experienced, whether it was good or bad, it shapes how you see risk and self-control later in life. Growing up around it also makes you understand losing money faster, because you saw it happen every day. So it makes sense that you learn to control your emotions quicker, so you don’t get addicted. But the downside is, many kids who are exposed to gambling young end up obsessed with making quick money, and that screws up their mental growth.