Was This Stepdad Wrong For Taking His Stepson's Gambling Winnings?

Familial relationships are tough, whether we’re bonded by blood or not, and parenting? Forget about it. So hard, every day, all the time, whether you birthed them or not.

That said, this stepdad is thinking he might have messed up, and who better to ask than all of the internet?

It begins with some background – OP and his girlfriend have been together for “several years” and he’s always gotten along fairly well with her 18yo son.

Recently, though, they had a blowout after they stopped at a casino on the way home from a family vacation.

He gave the kid $100 to go gamble with, and said “go win me some money.”

I (44m) have been with my girlfriend (40f) for several years now. She has one child–a son who recently turned 18. He and I get along really well, at least for the most part.

But recently he and I had our first blowout fight and I’m wondering if I was wrong. What happened was that we were returning home from a summer trip. My girlfriend decided that we should stop at a casino near the border of our home state–she enjoys gambling, maybe a little too much but that’s a different post. We ended up getting a hotel room at the casino for a night.

For a lot of it my girlfriend’s son and I just hung out and watched a CSI marathon. But eventually we ended up joining his mom on the casino floor. I gave the boy $100 and told him that he should go make me some money.

The kid did go win some money – a thousand bucks, to be exact – but when he was excited about keeping it, stepdad informed him he “didn’t earn it” and took it all for himself.

Eventually I met up with my girlfriend (his mother) and he came up a little later to both of us with a cash waiver for about $1,100.

He looked really proud of his earnings. I told him to turn his cash for another $100 but he responded “No, I think I’ll keep this.”

I answered him “No, you didn’t earn that” and took the money and explained that all winnings between us were communal. I gave him another $100.

Neither he or his girlfriend think he’s wrong, since his money was the seed for the winnings, but his stepson is so mad he’s started thinking maybe he might actually be wrong.

I think that he had no claim to his gambling winnings in the first place since it came from my money. My girlfriend is actually with me on this.

But her son is really mad it me right now; probably the angriest he has ever been, feeling like I stole his winnings and it’s had me thinking that maybe I’m in the wrong.

Brace yourselves, because the internet is about to weigh in.

The top comment points out that this wasn’t a loan, and there were no terms given.