Gambling is Calculated Risk Honing for Young Adults

Underage gambling definitely leads to compulsive gambling. But gambling in itself can be a tool for honing young adults' ability to make calculated risks as they enter the harsher reality of life. A little gambling for young adults may actually be helpful.

A lot of life is about risk taking which is not unlike actual gambling. The moment young adults choose what course to take in college is a gamble. They bet their whole lives on a college course which they believe would give them the winnings of a successful career. The same with picking a company to apply in and marrying the boy or girl to spend their whole lives with.

To make major life decisions maturely they have to start with small scale risk-taking. A little gambling can help them with this. They experience what it's like risking small amounts and making these small investments grow with good skill and wit. With responsible gambling they also learn on their own the importance and wisdom of money management.

Very few things are really bad in themselves. Abuse is what ruins a simple stress-releasing entertainment into a life-wrecking addiction. And this is really a matter of one's decision. Casinos and gambling games do not have the power to ruin lives—nobody is forced to engage in them. If we get hooked on them it's entirely our choice. We can't blame casinos or online gambling or gambling advertisements.

Safe gambling for young adults is best learned by doing. And this is not just about casino gambling. We're talking of making major life risks—which incur greater "bets" or "wagers" we prefer calling "investments." And gambling of this kind takes greater amounts of bets than do casino gambling. Young adults about to enter the faster-pace and more business-like aspects of life can well learn practical risk-taking by starting with a little gambling.

Kids and teens should be protected from casino gambling because they're not fit to assume risk-taking yet. In life risk-taking, parents should do this for them. Childhood and adolescent intellectual and emotional makeup is designed more for wholesome fun without the stress of life decision-making. Moreover, they do not have the maturity to make calculated risks—they tend to swing from one extreme to another. In fact, many studies aver, problem gambling starts from underage gambling.

Gambling for young adults, in the right moderation, can introduce them to basic realities in life and help them device "bet strategies" to fit their conceived winning odds in the same.