On May 10, students exit the elevators onto the sixth floor of the Indiana Rooftop Ballroom. Each student walks towards a table as they’re greeted by teachers who hand them a card, which could later be used to exchange for chips to play casino games.
As the students explore the ballroom, they find several casino tables, each with a different game. Some of the games available were blackjack, roulette and poker.
At the end of the night, students could exchange their chips for raffle tickets to possibly win a prize.
While students may have had fun playing these games, they are unaware that these games are actually negatively impacting them.
Although gambling is not ethical, it has become a common theme for many school and social events. However, this normalization is wrong.
Early exposure to gambling among teens of SHS can result in an addiction to gambling in their future.
Gambling isn’t some sort of theme that people should use for festivities in school events. After all, gambling at a young age could lead teens to getting in major financial problems in the future.
According to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, “Research shows that children introduced to ‘harmless betting’ … (are) likely to engage in problem gambling later. A teen’s brain, with an underdeveloped logic center, isn’t wired yet to weigh risk and make healthy choices. So that ‘win’ on an online game today can lead to the negative side effects of real-life gambling tomorrow.”
This prom theme is normalizing gambling, even though it’s a serious topic. While people can indeed have fun at casinos and have the chance to win, it doesn’t override the fact that they could still lose their money, leaving them in debt.
Gambling doesn’t just affect the person, but it also affects their family, especially when it comes to debt that needs to be paid off.
According to the National Council on Problem Gambling, “2.5 million U.S. adults (1%) are estimated to meet the criteria for a severe gambling problem in a given year.”
Gambling not only causes the addict to suffer, but also causes the family to suffer alongside them. Also, because of the gambling affecting the families financially, it can cause the kids to be affected in their education as well.
The parents could also be struggling too because they have to focus on paying off their debts as the gambler of the two wasted their money on gambling rather than saving it for their children.
People shouldn’t place bets or gamble at all. Instead, they should focus on saving money for other things, such as retirement or their significant other. Also, if they have kids, they can put that money towards college tuition.
Because of the dangers that gambling poses to adults, it shouldn’t be normalized or encouraged for teens. Especially since teens are more likely to get addicted than adults are.
Gambling, in the end, shouldn’t be something that adults or even teens do just because they can win a large amount of money.
Gamblers need to think about the consequences of their actions each time they’re either gambling at a casino or placing a bet because it’s also affecting their loved ones each time. Remember, Lady Luck won’t always be by your side.
