Another Cup Match, another Crown and Anchor Tent featuring the game of chance. Not really gambling, you know, all in good fun, wink, wink, but so much anticipation that one business is featuring a video game of the same name available locally on your cell phone.Are we gamblers?Not all of us gamble; at least we don’t think we do. Some of us will emphatically insist that we never, ever would gamble. But, lest we congratulate ourselves as being paragons of virtue, do we know what gambling really is: a game of chance, risk or reward, or just plain luck?From almost the moment we enter this world, we think we are in control of our lives, our finances, our emotions, our health, our destiny. Are we? Disregard the illusion of control.Isn’t it a fact that every decision made, whether carefully considered or not, is a random event and that the outcome of those decisions cannot be completely predicted? When events happen the way we planned them, we think that we have anticipated the future appropriately. We become quite smug and self congratulatory that because we planned for our life dreams, we know what we are doing. Do we? Further, we consider that since the planned event worked perfectly in the past that the same sequence will occur in the future. Will it?Life itself is a gamble. Random events occur. If only individual regrets can accumulate quickly in a personal life, as in - if only I had made a difference choice - things would be different. But did you ever really control the outcome?Do we practice subliminal gambling where no cash actually changes hands? The patriarch, whether because of a current budget assault or mental apathy, avoids paying the property insurance on the family home. The motorcyclist who decides wearing a helmet is like totally uncomfortable. The pilot shipping out his sea craft under uncertain weather conditions. The skiier choosing an alternate route down the mountain. The walker crossing the road against the traffic.Do we practice calculated gambling in commerce? Insurance statistical modellers (those maths geniuses) are one of the greatest authorities on predicting the probability of random occurrences, such as hurricanes, to calculate the cost of the risk-reward model.The international retailer launching a new product globally after many focus studies may still have no idea whether the firm will win or lose in the profit cycle because consumers are notoriously fickle and unpredictable.The financial representative touting the historical performance of a mutual fund will rely upon the old mantra “past performance is no predictor of future events (performance)”, but discuss the proposition that investors’ overall conservative strategy may reap rewards in the long run.Markets are unpredictable. Who could have foreseen this week’s capital market volatility hiccup on Wednesday morning, August 1, 2012 in New York, or the ongoing Libor situation? Random events?We know we practise blatant gambling. Could I safely say that one-quarter to one-half of Bermuda residents have, at one time or another, been to a gambling mecca, such as Las Vegas or Atlantic City? The travel reasoning is always “a little shopping and visits with friends.” Of course, it is!We also use the fine art of cash compartmentalisation. Why do we treat the same amount of money (and the act of using money) so differently as in examples below?- Slot machines. The average tourist to Las Vegas loses around $450 in the slot machines per visit, but while smarting mentally we consider that entertainment, not gambling per se.- The game of Bingo, endorsed by religion and cloaked under the guise of charity, that is doing good by having fun follows the same thought process.- Pretend online gaming or gambling where the websites set the individual up to embrace real online gambling. The growth of this industry has been exponential.- But, take that $450 out of your savings account and throw it away, and we consider that totally unacceptable. Why, it is the same amount?Our attitudes influence others. Children learn what they live and boy, are they learning faster than ever through the highly charged medium of children’s electronic games, whether their parents truly gamble or not.I was shocked years ago to play “pretend” Texas Hold ‘Em and Fold ‘Em in a video game with a young seven-year-old boy. He knew the rules better that I ever did and won consistently. It was considered harmless at the time. However, with the astronomical exposure to video games, poker and other websites, some children have moved right into real cash gambling.Using generations-old play toys, “Children as young as six years old are running up debts by gambling on games of marbles”, according to The Sun News, Kids, 6, Gamble £30 a day … on Marbles (by Alex Peake, 2011 October 27). According to local police in Plymouth, Devon, UK, the children are then stealing cash, DVDs and computer games to pay off their debts.Another publisher, The Standard, featured an article: “Children who gamble point finger at betting behaviour of parents”, (Stephanie Chan, 2011 May 20).Gambling among children is no longer an isolated occurrence, evidently, witnessed by the number of websites established to help parents with this problem. Type in “how children gamble” to Google to see more than 32 million sites/articles.Gambling disease affects “everyone that has a disposition to compulsive and addictive behaviours, whether you are a Bingo Player, casino gambler, or have sports betting problem”, according to Gamblers Anonymous, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The problem is part and parcel of the gambling environment.Some readers will probably reject some of these statements made above as taken out of context, exaggerated, or simply just not the case. After all, gaming (gambling) is big, big business no deterrents wanted.I submit to you that we are all gamblers of one sort or another; we just don’t call it gambling. And probably, most of us can control our impulse to game so that it never becomes an addiction. But, our children, our impressionable children! The thought of them “playing for real” is simply abhorrent.Just a few random thoughts for your Cup Match holiday.Sources:http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3896195/Kids-6-gamble-30-a-dayon-marbles.htmlhttp://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=11&art_id=111270&sid=32439765&con_type=1http://www.problemgambling.ca/en/resourcesforprofessionals/pages/youthandgamblingprevention.aspxMartha Harris Myron CPA PFS CFP (USA) TEP is Director of Tax Services at Patterson Partners Ltd providing integrated cross-border tax, estate, investment advisory and related strategic planning services through entities in Bermuda and the United States. She authors a weekly financial column for the Royal Gazette, Bermuda and internationally featured in AICPA CPA Insider and various news aggregators. For additional information, please contact mmyron@patterson-partners.com or call 296 3528 http://www.patterson-partners.com