Skip to main content

Wanna Play Some Spades?



Gambling is the monster we created. We let our children watch the card table come out at cookouts and family reunions — money slapped down, laughs getting louder, someone chasing the win in a game of spades. We taught them how to play. We showed them how to bet. We let them dream about taking the jackpot from cousins and siblings. There was no harm in it, right? 


That’s how gambling looked in the early 2000s — gathered around tables, surrounded by family, and happening in plain sight. Today, it looks very different. Technology puts gambling within reach in seconds. This generation is tech-savvy and understands the ins and outs of digital platforms, including how to get around age-verification systems — often by using a parent’s information. Stories like these raise an important question: do you ever stop to wonder what your child is doing on their phone? 👀📱

What makes this so dangerous is the illusion. It’s the illusion of winning real money that pulls youth in and keeps them hooked. Gambling doesn’t show up looking like a problem — it shows up looking familiar, casual, and harmless. It feels like entertainment, like something everyone does. But when something blends into everyday life, it stops raising red flags. By the time we start asking questions, the behavior no longer feels new — it feels normal.

Silence is what allows it to grow. Kids don’t talk about it because no one is asking, and adults don’t ask because they assume it isn’t happening. It lives in that quiet space between trust and oversight, where curiosity can turn into routine and habits form unnoticed. By the time the silence is broken, the damage often feels sudden — when in reality, it’s been building the whole time.🗢👂

Breaking the silence doesn’t require having all the answers — it requires starting the conversation. When adults ask questions without judgment and listen without reacting, it opens the door for honesty. Conversations create visibility, and visibility creates accountability. The moment gambling becomes something that can be talked about openly is the moment it loses its power to grow unchecked.

This is what the monster looks like now. It isn’t loud or obvious. It doesn’t sit at a table in plain sight. It lives in convenience, curiosity, and quiet moments we don’t always see. The monster we created grew as access grew, as conversations faded, and as assumptions replaced awareness. But monsters lose their power when they’re named.

Recognizing this doesn’t mean pointing fingers or rewriting the past — it means paying attention in the present. It means being more intentional about what we normalize, what we ignore, and what we choose to talk about. Prevention doesn’t always look like rules or restrictions; sometimes it looks like awareness, curiosity, and adults being willing to stay engaged even when the topic feels uncomfortable.

The monster we created didn’t appear overnight, and it won’t disappear without intention. But monsters lose their power when they’re named, understood, and confronted. The moment we stop treating gambling as harmless background noise and start seeing it for what it has become is the moment we regain control. Awareness is where prevention begins — and responsibility is how we ensure the monster doesn’t keep growing. 👾👾👾

Jada Young
Shawnee Transformation Youth Coalition
Project Coordinator, Bet on Yourself 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Prevention Displaced: When the Work Has No Home

The work of prevention—of substance use, of violence, of suicide—can’t pause because a lease ends. And yet, here we are. STYC, a coalition built on 10 years of youth-centered advocacy, education, and intervention, has been displaced from our physical space to make room for an affordable housing development. We support housing deeply. We recognize the importance of providing stable housing for the families in our service area. But it’s also true that prevention work needs a place to live, too. We serve neighborhoods where trauma lives, where opportunity feels miles away, and where youth are making life-and-death decisions without enough guidance or support. Yet, in the very area where we are needed most, there's no office space available for us to continue that work. STYC isn’t a large nonprofit with deep pockets or national branding. We are small, rooted, and nimble. Our power has always come from the people—the youth advocates who run workshops, the parents who show up, the par...
Post a Comment
Read more

Youth Gambling, Hiding in Plain Sight

“A new study from Common Sense Media finds that 36% of boys ages 11 to 17 reported gambling in the past year—ranging from sports betting and card games to online gaming-related gambling through loot boxes and gacha pulls.”      If you don’t have time ⏳ to read the full blog, no worries. Click the link and watch the short 5-minute video on youth gambling instead. It’s quick, real, and straight to the point.   reported by NBC’s Kate Snow on TODAY . When I first read that headline, I had to stop and ask myself—is this shocking? I’m no psychologist or PhD student, but I am a professional who has spent the past eight weeks working directly with a group of 15 middle school students. Many of these youth have either gambled themselves or have been exposed to gambling through family members. What I observed during this time was both eye-opening and deeply concerning—and closely mirrored the findings shared in that national study. For many of us, gambling brings to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

It's Eleven O'clock

    Do You Know Where Your Children Are? Some of us recall the late-night message that once flashed across the television: “It’s 11:00—do you know where your children are?” Although there may not have been a flashy commercial to accompany it, the simple reminder carried weight. It didn’t prevent every bad choice or tragedy, but it made parents pause. If your child wasn’t at home, it forced a question: Where are they, and what are they doing? That same question is just as urgent today. Violence, substance use, and risky behaviors are touching our community in ways that are heartbreaking and often preventable. Recently, a young person—someone’s child or grandchild—was accused of committing a violent crime at a bus stop. Behind the headlines is a truth: this is not just “a suspect,” but someone’s family. We cannot afford to look away or to excuse warning signs that might have been noticed earlier. Why STYC Is Offering the Hidden in Plain Sight Experience? Parents ...
5 comments
Read more