Last night I was listening to NPR when an American Radioworks special called Logging On and Losing Out came on the radio. Billed as;
From TV tournaments to the World Wide Web, the poker revolution is sweeping America. Thanks to its glitzy presentation on television, and the millions in prize money, it's the pastime of choice for high school and college kids.
Mark Alden and James Silver do a masterful job of investigative reporting, diving into the connection online gambling companies are making at colleges and high schools to recruit new customers to their sites. The most fascinating part of the show was the disconnect between the rhetoric from the company executives, especially surrounding the ease of access for kids on to their sites, and the reality as discovered by Alden and Silver.
While I fully support the freedom of adults to gamble there is an ethical line that gets crossed when gambling games, like poker, are intentionally promoted to kids. However, there is a line that responsible marketers should not cross.
But, in this era of free market capitalism, where is the line?