From the Cheap Seats

Wednesday, August 25

Little Ones

After reading Sean's post about the effects of television on children, I started looking around for any other news or academic articles. I was very surprised at all the writing out there about how TV brings kids to the tables. I always figured that some kids got through to registering or there parents signed up for them but I did not think the problem was that widespread. I mean it takes quite some effort to start up as it is. Setting up a neteller account, depositing some cash, setting up an account with one of the rooms (yeah, this part is probably a joke). I find it hard to believe that this is so simple. A while back a friend of mine (well over age) tried to get his account going on PokerStars and it took him quite sometime getting his neteller account verified.

The question then becomes, even if kids get lured to the sites, can they sign up? News organizations seem to think so but is this just an emotional ploy to evoke a reaction? I looked for any academic articles or in depth research but never found one. Has anyone ever seen real research or evidence that this is a widespread problem?