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I am a Math teacher in a private school in the US. A majority of students consider probability and statistics a very boring topic and tend to focus significantly less compared to other topics. So last semester I reworked the curriculum and started playing games with decks of playing cards. I encouraged students to calculate probabilities, expected values, etc then come up with strategies to improve their odds of winning. I saw a meaningful boost in both engagement and grades.

I shared this teaching method in a message group. Some public school teachers liked the idea but had reservations about the legality of the content. They were worried about playing cards' connection to gambling, which could "raise the eyebrows of school boards and other authorities". As far as I know minors playing card games is fine as long as there is no money or other things that have monetary value on the line.

Of course school districts could decide to ban such content if they considered it undesirable, but is there any education-related legislation in any state that explicitly states that "material that incites or resembles real-life gambling" cannot be used in schools, blocking them from being introduced to the classroom in the first place?

yg017
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    Do the exercises contain specific gambling games (e.g. calculating blackjack odds), or ask for gambling strategies specifically (e.g. "what should you bet on in this scenario?"). Your description leaves it unclear as to whether it's purely focused on the existence of playing cards, or potential gambling-related examples/exercises that you generate from that deck of cards. – Flater Aug 08 '23 at 03:56
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    You might want to consider other authorities. e.g., where I live, Washington State has a "gambling commission". I worked in a video game arcade with redemption games that handed out tickets, and as store manager I needed to meet staff from the commission (it was no more than once a year). They explained I needn't worry as I'm only there because of a technicality, as their real main targets are casinos. Now, if I was school administration, I might not want curriculum to cause requirements like needing to submit to such oversight. So, "is it legal?" might not be the only relevant consideration – TOOGAM Aug 08 '23 at 06:42
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    Anecdotal, under the IB system (I think off the official curriculum, but I don't know) we a single lesson (3 hours or so) where we did a bunch of gambling related calculations where the answer was always 'the house always wins'. It was both a PSA why gambling is 'stupid' and a decent enough lesson. – David Mulder Aug 08 '23 at 06:45
  • Have you considered just using cards other than "Playing Cards"? Technically. Playing Cards are very specifically the cards that are used in playing games of chance (i.e., gambling). There are however, many Dedicated Game Card sets that still have all of the properties that you need to study the "without replacement" type of probabilities and statistics that you mentioned. Rook and Uno are the most well known, but there are many others as well. – RBarryYoung Aug 08 '23 at 13:27
  • There are lots of schools that have bridge clubs. But there could be a difference between using cards as part of the curriculum and as an extracurricular activity. – Barmar Aug 08 '23 at 14:57
  • @RBarryYoung It is totally wrong to conflate "games of chance" with gambling. Snakes and Ladders is a game of chance, for a blatant example. The vast majority of games played with a standard deck of playing cards, are not gambling games. Honestly, the notion that using playing cards as a prop in a school lesson would raise concerns about gambling is laughable to me as a Brit. – kaya3 Aug 08 '23 at 15:05
  • @kaya3-supportthestrike I was not conflating them, I was parenthetically clarifying which particular meaning of the phrase that I was invoking. – RBarryYoung Aug 08 '23 at 15:11
  • Not an answer, but note that a lot of groups may have unofficial or extralegal influence within school boards, beyond what's strictly prescribed by law. For instance, many school districts do not allow discussion of birthday celebrations in test materials, because this material could offend certain religious groups. (If you really want to ruffle some feathers, build a lesson plan around how vaccines influence the likelihood of disease transmission... and enjoy fighting that one out for the next six years of screaming PTA Board meetings.) – Tiercelet Aug 08 '23 at 16:32
  • An anecdote regarding community objection: I have known people who objected to the use of playing cards in any manner yet played a trick-taking, bidding game using dominoes called 42. Although money was never involved, the failure to see the parallel struck me as odd. – Dennis Williamson Aug 08 '23 at 19:48
  • Judging by the dearth of replies for the [tag:united-states] I suspect the will be "no". –  Aug 08 '23 at 22:22
  • @DavidMulder In high school we had a similar problem, asking you to find the house advantage for Blackjack or some such game and compute how much you'd expect to lose per hand. The next part of the question was to find the cost per hour, and the conclusion was that it was comparable to watching a movie. The problem showed it's the higher bets where you lose your shirt. The result was the problem didn't exactly show gambling was bad, but did teach you one way to be a smart gambler. – user71659 Aug 09 '23 at 01:47

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Quite the opposite; although playing cards are not specifically mentioned, gambling education is actively encouraged in schools: but through the support of charities and the voluntary sector - not by statute.

The key players are:

Gambling prevention education handbook

 provides a set of evidence-based principles to deliver effective gambling education for anyone who works with young people (aged 7 to 24) in a paid or voluntary capacity across a variety of formal and informal settings, including schools in England. 

Although tagged , I have answered according to the LawSE Help Centre: "we expect and encourage answers dealing with other jurisdictions ... please tag your answer using the tag markdown: [tag: some-tag]"

  • There may be similar provisions within the [tag:united-kingdom]'s devolved nations that mirror this answer to some extent but I have focused purely on [tag:england] to avoid the noise of duplication. –  Aug 07 '23 at 20:03
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    Wow! Very good that there is education about such stuff! Indeed, after all, it was originally the desire to have a rational understanding of gambling that led to the mathematical subject of "probability". Descartes, I think, and many others. :) – paul garrett Aug 07 '23 at 20:45
  • Does the UK PSHE syllabus include any mathematics? The description above could all be covered under a social sciences banner, with reference to personal and social consequences without covering any of the probability positions involved in the industry. – Jontia Aug 08 '23 at 10:27
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    @Jontia no, PHSE assumes an age-appropriate mathematical background but doesn't teach it (there's enough squeezed in without trying to duplicate other sections of the curriculum) – Chris H Aug 08 '23 at 12:01
  • I'd say this is closer to having laws against playing cards than it is to the opposite (but playing cards without betting isn't gambling). These resources are about "Gambling prevention education". That certainly doesn't seem like it'd involve children gambling in class, but rather involves teaching them about the harms of gambling, so they know to stay away from it and/or how to do it safely, similar to educating children about sex (which certainly isn't similar to children having sex in class). – NotThatGuy Aug 08 '23 at 12:34
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