It’s not the first conflict between the need to educate and the need to protect.

Sex education in schools, safe sex education, information on safe drug use - each has met resistance from parents and lobby groups at various stages, and each has proved its worth.

Teaching kids how to gamble responsibly, however, before they are old enough to legally gamble, goes too far.

Of course, many people in the Illawarra love to have a flutter and throwing a few 20s into the hungry slot is part of a standard night out for plenty. They are not all problem gamblers.

It is surprising that the Gambling Impact Society, which campaigns against pokie-related harm, is not dead against this proposal.

Surely the most effective kind of gambling education for children is to teach them not to do it.

But if this unlikely proposal were to happen, there could be a benefit: when an addict slips away from the dinner table at the club, their kids might pull them up before they blow their pay packet.

The voice of a child could be more effective than an addict’s own failed self-discipline.