It is generally not a good idea to put lottery tickets in stockings as gift at Christmas. This is a warning by Canadian lottery officials telling parents not to try this as the annual Christmas season of giving approaches.

It appears that since they are not that expensive and they do give the opportunity to win a lot of money, lottery tickets have actually become a popular stocking filler at Christmastime. In fact it is reported that as many as 30 percent of the tickets are being purchased and are being given to minors. This is from a recent study done by the University of McGill.

Because of this survey, the Atlantic Lottery Corp Loto-Quebec, and the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. have been encouraged to join forces with researchers at McGill University in their attempt at encouraging parents to not give their children lottery tickets as Christmas presents.

Don Pister who is the spokesperson for the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. has said that such tickets are for adults and not for children. This was told this weak to the Canadian Press. He includes this with the many things that youth are excluded from participating in in Canadian society.

Aiming their efforts at parents mostly, the three lottery commissions have begun awareness campaigns stressing the perils of youth gambling.

Bringing gambling to young people at an early age is generally agreed to be a bad idea by gambling experts, that can have devastating implications.

Alissa Sklar who is a senior researcher at McGill's International Centre for Youth Gambling Problems and High-Risk Behaviours says that such things as lottery tickets although being inexpensive and ideal it would seem as stocking stuffer gifts for Christmas, in fact give the wrong message and they can create potential problems. She stresses the importance for parents, grandparents, and other caregivers to realize that such gifts as lottery tickets, scratch cards or other lottery products are really inappropriate as gifts for those under the age of 18.

Studies at McGill University have shown that playing with lottery tickets at an early age can induce problem gambling in later years. Studies have shown that younger children when introduced to such things as gambling are at greater risk of developing an addiction.

Sklar says that in fact gambling is being seen these days as something quite normal and has therefore fallen from the radar screen of adults as being a risk to children such as alcohol, drugs or tobacco. Parents that gamble and then give gifts of lottery tickets are sending their children the message that it is alright to gamble.
In most districts it is not legal either for underage children to purchase or to cash in lottery tickets. Nevertheless Sklar reports that as many as thirty percent of children in Canada have already received lottery tickets or scratch cards as gifts.

Sklar sees this as alarming since gambling among young people already seems to be on the increase with as many as thirty percent of Canadian teens gambling on a weekly basis.

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