Well, it has a ceramic cartridge so its not going to sound great, but it isn't going to ruin your records. Looks like it has an adjustable counterweight. At least it's not a suitcase, your mom was trying to do good.

I believe the Banpa BP2ATC would upgrade that from ceramic to moving magnet to improve the sound quality, the reddit user vwestlife has an excellent youtube video discussing it.

The cassette slot in the side cracks me up, i dont know why....