Faith Meets Life: Gambling away responsible citizenship
In hard times, people try unusual measures to survive. Some pin their hopes on a lottery or some other gaming opportunity. Actually, it's not only hard times that encourage people to gamble. TV ads and online pop-ups bombard students and all of us with enticements to gamble.
It doesn't help that our governments are the biggest promoters of gambling. There's no need, I am sure, for me to spend any ink or digital space making that point.
Where I live, the provincial government is in the process of enhancing its gaming revenue with the introduction of new electronic Keno. (It does sound nice when it's put that way! How could anyone object?) While there is opposition, the government is pushing ahead.
To those who worry that young people, or those with a tendency towards gambling addiction, may become hooked the response is ready. Keno draws take place every five minutes from noon to midnight. It is true that there is no limit to the number of draws anyone can enter. But there is a limit of a different kind: the maximum one can place on any draw is $10. That must surely be a comfort to those trying to prevent compulsive gaming!
The government will be a little more flush. And the patrons won't. Well, such is life, buyer beware, and so on.
I don't want to spoil anyone's enjoyment of a game of chance, but it does seem to me, as I notice convenience store customers tearing through multiple lottery tickets before they leave the counter, that we are ludicrously hooked to a gaming economy.
For myself, when a gas station cashier asks me if I want to buy a lottery ticket, I try to be polite. But sometimes I have to ask if she doesn't know that the tickets are designed for me to lose. Doesn't' she know that I know that? Do the gaming industry and governments depend on us behaving like mindless zombies?
Sometimes a harsh reality can jolt people out of their dream state. Consider this a cautionary tale from the East. A story about a Nova Scotia man in trouble was recently published in the Inverness Oran. Paul Burrell discovered the Sydney Casino in the 1990s. Big mistake.
Eight hundred thousand dollars later, his case is at the Nova Scotia Supreme Court. Burrell is looking for $80,000 for psychological and emotional pain, $500,000 for the loss of personal and family monies and $500,000 for the implementation of procedures to protect himself and others from uncontrolled gambling.
Acting Finance Minister for Nova Scotia is quoted in the Oran. “You know, being Minister of Finance for the last few days, you know (sic), we need some revenue sources right now, and we'll look at all opportunities at this point.”
Exactly. Maybe our next stop needs to be an anti-gambling website to get another perspective than the one our governments have on offer.
Gambling is easy. Making money from gambling is easy. Losing money to gambling is easy. So, maybe the heart of the problem is something like laziness. What we need to do is the harder work of thinking clearly as responsible citizens, acting realistically as individuals, and expecting our governments to validate that approach, rather than undermine it.
If we can do that with respect to gaming, maybe we can do the same concerning our economy with its booms and busts. For the economy looks increasingly like a game of chance in which we participate without much understanding, hoping to score.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
It doesn't help that our governments are the biggest promoters of gambling. There's no need, I am sure, for me to spend any ink or digital space making that point.
Where I live, the provincial government is in the process of enhancing its gaming revenue with the introduction of new electronic Keno. (It does sound nice when it's put that way! How could anyone object?) While there is opposition, the government is pushing ahead.
To those who worry that young people, or those with a tendency towards gambling addiction, may become hooked the response is ready. Keno draws take place every five minutes from noon to midnight. It is true that there is no limit to the number of draws anyone can enter. But there is a limit of a different kind: the maximum one can place on any draw is $10. That must surely be a comfort to those trying to prevent compulsive gaming!
The government will be a little more flush. And the patrons won't. Well, such is life, buyer beware, and so on.
I don't want to spoil anyone's enjoyment of a game of chance, but it does seem to me, as I notice convenience store customers tearing through multiple lottery tickets before they leave the counter, that we are ludicrously hooked to a gaming economy.
For myself, when a gas station cashier asks me if I want to buy a lottery ticket, I try to be polite. But sometimes I have to ask if she doesn't know that the tickets are designed for me to lose. Doesn't' she know that I know that? Do the gaming industry and governments depend on us behaving like mindless zombies?
Sometimes a harsh reality can jolt people out of their dream state. Consider this a cautionary tale from the East. A story about a Nova Scotia man in trouble was recently published in the Inverness Oran. Paul Burrell discovered the Sydney Casino in the 1990s. Big mistake.
Eight hundred thousand dollars later, his case is at the Nova Scotia Supreme Court. Burrell is looking for $80,000 for psychological and emotional pain, $500,000 for the loss of personal and family monies and $500,000 for the implementation of procedures to protect himself and others from uncontrolled gambling.
Acting Finance Minister for Nova Scotia is quoted in the Oran. “You know, being Minister of Finance for the last few days, you know (sic), we need some revenue sources right now, and we'll look at all opportunities at this point.”
Exactly. Maybe our next stop needs to be an anti-gambling website to get another perspective than the one our governments have on offer.
Gambling is easy. Making money from gambling is easy. Losing money to gambling is easy. So, maybe the heart of the problem is something like laziness. What we need to do is the harder work of thinking clearly as responsible citizens, acting realistically as individuals, and expecting our governments to validate that approach, rather than undermine it.
If we can do that with respect to gaming, maybe we can do the same concerning our economy with its booms and busts. For the economy looks increasingly like a game of chance in which we participate without much understanding, hoping to score.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
