Allah says in the Glorious Quran “O you who have believed, indeed, intoxicants, gambling, [sacrificing on] stone alters [to other than Allah], and divining arrows are but defilement from the work of Satan, so avoid it that you may be successful. Satan only wants to cause between you animosity and hatred through intoxicants and gambling and to avert you from the remembrance of Allah and from prayer. So will you not desist?” [Al-Quran 5:90-91]
Gambling’s basic attraction for the individual has always been the lure of “getting something for nothing.” In its simplest form gambling is the act of risking something of value on the outcome of a game or event that may be determined in part or entirely by chance.
Gambling is an old evil, long recognised as such. Some Oriental gambling games have been traced back to 2100 B.C. In ancient Egypt persons convicted of gambling were sent to the quarries. Gambling is denounced in the Hindu code, the Quran, and the Talmudic law. Aristotle denounced gamblers.
Gambling was widespread in the Middle Ages, especially among the nobility. But even those who practiced games of chance were willing to recognise evil in the games, at least for others. Legislation in England and France attempted to counteract the detrimental effects of gambling on servants, because it induced them to idleness or caused them to neglect archery practice, thus endangering national security.
One of the most popular forms of gambling was the lottery, which was permitted among working-class people and was common in the English-speaking world in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Queen Elizabeth proclaimed the first state lottery in England in 1576. Lotteries were so widespread in the United States in the early 1800s that there were almost two hundred lottery offices in the state of New York alone. In 1832 the gross sale of lottery tickets was over $60 million, which was five times the total national budget of the U.S. government.
Opposition to lotteries first came in England in 1773, when the city of London petitioned the House of Commons to abolish lotteries because they were hurting the commerce of the kingdom and threatening the welfare and prosperity of the people. In 1808 the Commons appointed a select committee to inquire into the evils attending lotteries. The committee report, which helped to abolish lotteries in England a few years later, is so current that it could have been written last week instead of over 160 years ago.
The committee reported cases in which people living in comfort and respectability had been reduced to poverty and distress; cases of domestic quarrels, assaults, and the ruin of family peace; and cases of fathers deserting their families, mothers neglecting their children, wives robbing their husbands of the earnings of months and years, and people pawning clothes, beds, and wedding rings, in order to indulge in the speculation.
“In other cases,” the committee reported, “children had robbed their parents, servants their masters; suicides had been committed, and almost every crime that can be imagined had been occasioned, either directly or indirectly, through the baneful influence of lotteries. …”
In its final report the committee concluded that the foundation of the lottery system was so radically vicious that no method of regulation could be devised that would permit Parliament to adopt it as an efficacious source of revenue and at the same time divest it of all its attendant evils.
At a time when state lotteries are being touted as an attractive way to raise badly needed public funds, it is well to recall that a lottery is the most regressive of all revenue measures. Even more than the unpopular sales tax, its burden falls most heavily on the poor, who are the principal patrons of this type of gambling.
In 1962 United States Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy called attention to the overwhelming cost of gambling:
“… the American people are spending more on gambling than on medical care or education; … in so doing, they are putting up the money for the corruption of public officials and the vicious activities of the dope peddlers, loan sharks, bootleggers, white slave traders, and slick confidence men. Investigation this past year by the FBI, Internal Revenue Service, the Narcotics Bureau, the Post Office Department, and all other federal investigative units has disclosed without any shadow of a doubt that corruption and racketeering, financed largely by gambling, are weakening the vitality and strength of this nation.”
Lotteries harmful nature was widely understood before 1963, when New Hampshire organised the first modern-day lottery. Now, 37 states operate these highly profitable gambling monopolies, which prohibit competition while profiting from the desperation of the poor. In 1997, statewide lotteries extracted $16 billion from ordinary people hoping and praying for the jackpot! How times have changed. Historically, governments have outlawed or tightly regulated gambling. Now they promote it with vigour. Indeed, today's politicians love lotteries because they allow them to feed their voracious appetites for revenues without having to pay the political price for raising taxes. Truly, the fox is in the henhouse.
Lottery administrators are concerned about a phenomenon they call "jackpot fatigue," meaning gamblers no longer get excited at the prospect of winning only a few million dollars. Therefore, greater prizes are needed to get their money. Lottery officials defend their livelihood by asking what harm is there if someone who can afford to bet chooses to throw away a dollar on an 80-million-to-one long shot. But that is not where Powerball and other lotteries make their money. They rake it in from "players" such as Ernie Kovic, a 28-year-old Bronx waiter studying aircraft design at a trade school. Last summer, Kovic stood in line to buy $3,000 worth of Powerball tickets-money he had been saving for tuition. Kovic told The New York Times: "If I win, I won't have to go to school. Heck, I can buy my own aircraft." Guess what? Kovic lost, as did 79,999,999 other gullible betters.
There are a multitude of Ernie Kovics wasting their savings, their families and their futures chasing the tantalising but false hopes hawked by state lotteries. Ten percent of lottery players account for half of all lottery purchases.' The Washington Post, after examining lotteries in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., concluded that they rely on a hard core of heavy players, who, on average, have less education and lower incomes than the population as a whole."
Lottery administrators know exactly who their customers are, which is why they often target the poor with their marketing schemes. An advertising plan for the Ohio lottery recommended that "promotional pushes" take place at the beginning of the month. Why? Because government benefits, payroll and Social Security payments are released on the first Tuesday of each calendar month. An infamous Illinois Lottery billboard campaign in a Chicago ghetto showed a picture of a lottery ticket with the caption: "This could be your ticket out." Fat chance!
Lotteries also foster a get-rich-quick mentality while belittling the work ethic. A Massachusetts Lottery ad offered two options for how to "make millions." Let me quote: "Plan A: Start studying when you're about 7 years old, real hard. Then grow up and get a good job. From then on, get up at dawn every day. Flatter [your] boss. Crush competition ruthlessly. Climb over backs of co-workers. Be the last one to leave every night. Squirrel away every cent. Avoid having a nervous breakdown. Avoid having a premature heart attack. Get a face lift. Do this every day for 30 years, holidays and weekends included. By the time you're ready to retire you should have your money." Or "Plan B": Play the lottery."
Today there are many proposals to legalise gambling. Some urge this as a way to obtain new tax revenues, citing the examples of Spain, Norway, Sweden, France, Australia, and twenty other governments whose national lotteries provide significant revenues to state treasuries. Others propose to legalise gambling because they contend that this would weaken organised crime by drying up one of its principal sources of financial support. It is also urged that legalised gambling would reduce the amount of graft and illegal payoffs to public officials.
Closely examined, none of these arguments for legalised gambling is persuasive. When the late Thomas E. Dewey was governor of New York, he answered these arguments, declaring:
“The entire history of legalised gambling in this country and abroad shows that it has brought nothing but poverty, crime and corruption, demoralisation of moral standards, and ultimately lower living standards and misery for all the people.”
The late J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is quoted as saying: “If you think legalising games of chance starves out the criminals, look at Las Vegas, where the games are legal, yet the hoods still deal themselves in and related vices flourish.”
In urging the state of Alaska not to legalise gambling as an economic panacea, Senator Alexander Wiley of Wisconsin gave these additional financial reasons: the idea that gambling would increase revenues is an illusion. Every dollar raised from gambling would mean five dollars spent in “higher police costs, higher court costs, higher penitentiary costs, and higher relief costs.”
Another evil of gambling is that it promotes greed and covetousness and inevitably involves and encourages the base practice of overreaching and taking from one’s neighbour.
In addition, gambling has a tendency to corrupt the participant. We are all familiar with cases in which trusted employees have ruined their lives and brought disgrace and tragedy upon themselves and their families by stealing their employer’s money. All too often the sordid story is traceable to a desperate attempt to pay gambling debts or to finance further gambling activities.
The temptations of the gambler are such that persons in responsible positions in government and private industry will not hire or retain as employees those who are known to gamble. In recounting the undesirable side effects of gambling, mention must also be made of the fact that gambling is often accompanied by indulgence in alcohol and other vices.
Also, one disadvantage cited by persons not concerned with the moral effects of gambling, is the extraordinary waste of time involved in it. Those who while away their hours gambling frequently do so to the neglect of family and work.
Time wasted in gambling becomes more significant when we reflect that many persons who indulge in gambling become addicted to it. The late Elder Richard L. Evans of the Council of the Twelve (1906–1971) made this statement:
“The spirit of gambling is a progressive thing. Usually it begins modestly; and then, like many other hazardous habits, it often grows beyond control. At best it wastes time and produces nothing. At worst it becomes a ruinous obsession and fosters false living by encouraging the futile belief that we can continually get something for nothing.”
In the USA Studies show that about two-thirds of teens have gambled in the past year. Sometimes they are betting on sports or cards with their friends, but a staggering percentage are gambling on legal activities despite their ages. In Massachusetts, 47 percent of seventh-graders, and three-quarters of high school seniors, have played the lottery! Massachusetts' attorney general found that two-thirds of underage teens who tried were able to bet on keno games run by the lottery. In a survey of 12,000 Louisiana adolescents, one-quarter reported playing video poker, 17 percent had gambled on slot machines and one in 10 had bet on horse or dog racing.
Even more significant is what is happening to these young people as a result of their involvement with gambling. The same survey of Massachusetts high school students found that one in 20 had already been arrested for a gambling-related offense; 10 percent experienced family problems due to gambling; and eight percent had gotten in trouble at work or school because of gambling.' A new Louisiana State University study shows that Louisiana youngsters in juvenile detention are roughly four times as likely to have a serious gambling problem as their peers. Two-thirds of the hard-core gamblers in detention admitted stealing specifically to finance their gambling.'
As for gambling at the college level, Sports Illustrated produced an in depth three part series that described gambling as "the dirty little secret on college campuses, where it [gambling] is rampant and prospering." Betting also threatens the integrity of collegiate athletics. A national study by the University of Michigan earlier this year found that 45 percent of male college football and basketball players admit to gambling on sports, despite rules explicitly prohibiting such activities. More than five percent admit shaving points, leaking inside information for gambling purposes or betting on their own games.
Studies indicate as many as eight percent of teens are already hooked on gambling!' For all their pious talk about wanting to prevent underage gambling, many operators actively attempt to cultivate betting habits in the next generation. That's why casinos in Louisiana have donated computer equipment and library books along with cards, dice and T-shirts emblazoned with casino logos to schoolchildren there (and why a grateful superintendent repaid their generosity by making a television commercial for a casino!)." That's why games in children's arcades inside casinos are virtual copies of adult casino games." That's why casino complexes now appeal to children with amusement rides, theme parks and movie theaters often forcing kids to walk through the casino floor to get to these attractions!
Gambling promoters try to downplay the high rates of gambling addiction among young people, saying they will grow out of such behaviour. Some undoubtedly will, but many will not. For millions, the hold of a gambling addiction is every bit as powerful as illegal drugs or any other addiction. A study of Gamblers Anonymous members found that only eight percent were able to stop their gambling even after attending GA for two years. Many of these young troubled gamblers will remain mired in the cesspool of gambling addiction for years and years to come.
Using the 2002 Canadian Community Health Survey, Cycle 1.2 on Mental Health and Well-being, the study estimates that 1.2 million adult Canadians were at risk of experiencing a problem with gambling, or were problem gamblers.
Of these, an estimated 700,000 were at low risk, another 370,000 at moderate risk, and 120,000 were already problem gamblers. That is, they had suffered adverse effects from their gambling behaviour, such as financial or social problems, anxiety or depression, or dependence on alcohol.
These 1.2 million individuals represented 5% of the total adult population, and 6% of all gamblers.
According to the study, those most likely to be in the at risk or problem categories were men, Aboriginal persons, those with less education, individuals who played video lottery terminals (VLTs), and people who gambled frequently.
One of four people whose gambling included VLTs were at risk or problem gamblers, confirming the much reported notion that VLTs are the "crack cocaine" of gambling. Those who bought only lottery tickets had the lowest chance of becoming problem gamblers.
Manitoba and Saskatchewan had considerably higher proportions of at risk gamblers than other provinces. This may be because they have the highest VLT participation rates in the country, above-average Aboriginal populations, and, along with Ontario, the highest attendance rates at casinos.
Constant gambling and excessive spending can take its toll in many facets of life, particularly personal and family finances, as well as an individual's health.
Half of all problem gamblers reported that their gambling caused difficulties in relationships with family or friends. Four in 10 obsessive gamblers (42%) reported a high level of stress in their life, compared with 23% of gamblers who reported no problems.
About 18% of problem gamblers reported that they had contemplated suicide in the year prior to the survey, six times the proportion (3%) of non-problem gamblers.
The insidiousness of excess gambling is revealed by the 27% of moderate-risk gamblers and 64% of problem gamblers who wanted to stop gambling in the year prior to the survey, but believed they could not. About 56% of problem gamblers had tried to quit, but couldn't.
Frequent gambling quickly lightens the wallet. About 62% of problem gamblers spent more than $1,000 a year on gambling, compared with only 4% of people who gambled with no problem.
The following facts regarding problem gambling have been obtained from the Report of the Productivity Commissions Inquiry into Australia's Gambling Industries (26 November 1999):
About 290,000 people in Australia (that is approximately 2% of all adult Australians) are considered to be experiencing significant problems associated with gambling.
The average duration of gambling problems is nine years.
It is estimated that in 1997/98 problem gamblers spent (lost) $M2 673, 80 per cent of which was expended on gaming machines.
Between five and ten "other" people are affected by the behaviour of a person who has a gambling problem.
If a gambler "reinvests" their winnings, he or she will eventually lose the lot.
Around 130 000 Australians (about 1 per cent of the adult population) are estimated to have severe problems with their gambling. A further 160 000 adults are estimated to have moderate problems, which may not require ‘treatment’ but warrant policy concern.
Taken together, ‘problem gamblers’ represent just over 290 000 people, or 2.1 per cent of Australian adults.
Problem gamblers comprise 15 per cent of regular (non-lottery) gamblers and account for about $3.5 billion in expenditure annually — about one-third of the gambling industries’ market.
They lose on average around $12 000 each per year, compared with just under $650 for other gamblers.
The costs include financial and emotional impacts on the gamblers and on others, with on average at least five other people affected to varying degrees. For example:
– one in ten said they have contemplated suicide due to gambling; and
– nearly half those in counselling reported losing time from work or study in the past year due to gambling.
The adverse impacts on individuals and the community help explain the ambivalence of most Australians about the gambling industries, despite their widespread involvement:
– around 70 per cent of people surveyed believed that gambling did more harm than good; and
– 92 per cent did not want to see further expansion of gaming machines.
Economists agree that wealth is created by manufacturing. Those economies which perform well, e.g. china, are manufacturing economies. Gambling only ends up in transferring wealth from the masses to a few hands. The more you play the more you will lose. As the odds are in casino's favour.
All in all, gambling is the main cause of serious economic and social problems. Gambling destroys marriages, undermines the work ethic, increases crime, motivates suicide, destroys the financial security of families and is related to a number of other social issues. It is now time for us to stand up against this evil practice and eliminate it from our lives.
