Steve Cooper

Reading

senior exec

What rubbish - well said Chris. This report is nonsense. Kids may not even be gambling online! But, if they are it's not the bookies to blame. I speak to my kids about the dangers of gambling, smoking, drinking, taking drugs - everything - and I believe I responsibly keep tracks on what they are doing and what they are spending their money on. You can never be 100% sure though, but if I found my 16-year-old son was gambling online I'd blame, in order: 1) Myself for not better informing him of the risks 2) his natural curiosity - we all break the rules growing up and few who are brought up well BY THEIR PARENTS develop serious problems 3) the government for allowing this to go unregulated 4) the banks for giving my son a card he could use. The bookies wouldn't even feature.

To use Chris's pub analogy - if my son gave the landlord no reason to believe he wasn't 18 then I really couldn't blame him for my boy getting drunk.

For crying out loud - these are bookmakers... who would trust their child's upbringing to a bookie? Parents should take a good look at themselves before blaming others.