I hadn't thought about it much before, but it makes a huge amount of sense: 
Don't give lottery tickets to children. That's what the National Council on Problem Gambling in Washington is telling parents and doting relatives. The Council has joined with the Canadian International Center for Youth Gambling Problems and High-Risk Behaviors in this campaign.
The campaign to explain the risks of giving lottery tickets as gifts to minors is supported by many state and provincial lotteries (not, alas, so far by my own state of New York) and has received unanimous support from the Responsible Gaming Sub-committee of the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries.
The campaign tells us:
Research shows that the majority of adolescents gamble at least occasionally, and that lottery products may be a gateway to problem gambling. Gambling also is linked to other risk-taking behaviors. Studies indicate gamblers and problem gamblers are prone to engage in other addictive behaviors such as smoking, drinking and drug use.I have posted this under the topic "celebrity kids" since Huffington Post doesn't offer me the choice of "gambling" or just "kids" or "children".
"We know that playing the lottery at a young age can increase the potential for problem gambling later in life," said Dr. Jeffrey Derevensky, co-director of the centre and a renowned expert on problem gambling among young people.
For more information, go to www.ncpgambling.com www.youthgambling.com or contact Keith S. Whyte of the National Council on Problem Gambling at keithw@ncpgambling.org.
Just say NO as kids cannot buy them...an adult has to
My son received a scratch off ticket for every soccer goal he scored from the age of 5 till he was 13. One time we calculated he had won a whole $25 over those 8 years and I had probably spent about $200 BUT he said he really looked forward to going to pick them out after his soccer games and it was very motivating.
He's 20 now and probably hasn't spent $10 in 2 years on lottery tickets.
Cest' la vie!
For a while there was "Saturday Night Bingo" or something running on TV, targeted at families with kids and I thought that was a terrible idea, it's one thing to put boring poker tournaments on TV - kids won't watch that - but bingo (and you could go to the website and print out your own bingo cards) is fun for kids, and bingo becomes a bad - and expensive - habit for lots of unsuspecting people. My brother was printing out bingo cards one day when I was visiting and I flipped out and told him in no uncertain terms that it was not. good. and the kids already had a compulsive gambler in the gene pool... he decided not to do saturday night bingo after all thank goodness...