Letter: 'Gambling ... enslaves'
Posted on February 24, 2010February 23, the world marks the 203rd anniversary of the House of Commons passing Wilberforce's bill, 1807, ending the slave-trade. Ours is a similar battle. Gambling, and government sponsorship of it, enslaves. "Great leaders who have turned the tide of national and spiritual declension have been men who could get angry at the injustices and abuses which dishonor God and enslave men." The Book on Leadership, John McArthur.
In the Epilogue to his memoirs, My American Journey, General Colin Powell writes, "A sense of shame is not a bad moral compass. I wonder where your national sense of shame has gone. How do we find our way again? How do we reestablish moral standards? How do we restore a sense of family to our national life?"
And Powell, who with his wife Alma, created America's Promise, concluded, "what we have to do as a nation is we have to start thinking of America as a family."
What then should we make of an enemy that destroys the family? How is it that a known predator is allowed to co-exist within the community? Shall we accommodate, under any rationale, what has abundantly proven to undermine the family unit that is the very foundation of society?
David Anderson, 988-2536
Tillicum
|
Would you like to receive a daily digest of all the stories we post to The Suburban Times? If so, just fill in the simple form below and click the Subscribe to List button. Subscriptions are FREE and can be deleted at any time. Enjoy!
(Required fields are bold) |
8 Comments
February 25th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
I have a great many close friends whose ancestors were slaves. I am shocked and appalled by your likening of person's participation in gambling to that of being owned, humiliated, abused, and/or murdered.
Where is your sense of shame at using such an outlandish and offensive analogy?
February 25th, 2010 at 5:37 pm
Does gambling enslave? Addict? Destroy? Ruin? Did the government of England of the anniversary we just noted, profit significantly off the backs of slaves? As did our own? As our own does now, and theirs did then, from gambling? Why is it that government, then and now, can turn a blind eye to such a travesty? The answer is because there is so much money to be made from owning others, from profiting from their weaknesses.
I too have firsthand observations of those whose lives have been shattered by, in my experience, gambling. Unlike many however, I am not indifferent to scenes that others find easy or convenient to ignore.
That last sentence is adopted almost in its entirety from the book Hero for Humanity, the story of Wilberforce who led the campaign to abolish slavery in England. But the quote is not about slavery. It is about gambling. It is about his friend, the aristocratic Charles Fox, who lost the fantastic sum of $4M at the gambling tables. These were the same members of Parliament who were so commited to vice - whether money made off the backs of the losses of others, or off the backs of the human property they owned - that they would pay any price to maintain the lifestyle to which they'd become accustomed.
Shame? That is the reason so much of the crime associated with gambling goes unreported on police blotters. The shame of having been so foolish for having lost so much.
February 25th, 2010 at 8:19 pm
I want to thank David Anderson for reminding me that an injustice to one is an injustice to all. I was also taught that "But by the Grace of God go I." I, like David Anderson, will not ignore the suffering that is perpetrated upon communities by predatory gambling, all in the name of free enterprise and freedom of choice. Maybe Wall Street Bankers gambling with his/her retirement is no big deal to Anonymous. But the consequences of a father, mother, son or daughter, gambling with their families economic future and survival in a State regulated Casino, does matter to me. And I find no shame, only honor, in seeking to free our communities from the addictive and enslaving influence of gambling.
February 26th, 2010 at 3:14 am
It angers me that any reference to slavery can be instituted in a discussion of gaming. Casinos do not go into neighborhoods and steal parents from their children, nor do they shackle these people with chains and baet them mercilessly. Gambling is about freedom of choice. And the constitution guarantees that freedom. Yes I visit the casinos in our city frequently. They are staffed with good people, who are trying to make a living in hard times. But I have yet to have anyone in a casino make me stay against my will. Do all of us that enjoy our freedom of choice a favor....go away!!
February 26th, 2010 at 7:38 am
Dear Mr Parmenter,
Let us further discuss Semantics and your choice of words:
As a resident of Lakewood since 1968, I resent being told to GO AWAY. My parents fought hard for years for the City of Lakewood to even come into its existence. They had no idea that the City governement would become so indolent as to become utterly dependent on Gambling revenue for its budget to balance. It is my right to fight for a civic cause of my choosing and my years of volunteer service to the children and schools have hopefully done more for its betterment than any gambling dollars might. I will not go away, you have my word on that.
February 26th, 2010 at 9:15 am
The definition of slave includes both 1. person who is the property of another; 2. person who is controlled or ruled by some influence. It comes from the Latin word for Slavs; Eastern Europeans (from where my ancestors came) who were enslaved in Roman times.
In both definitions the individual is not in control of their life. The circumstances of the enslavement of Africans 2 centuries ago in the US and problem addicted gamblers today are certainly different but the results are similar. Neither had/has the freedom to control their lives. Both kinds of slaves were/are ".... owned, humiliated, abused, and/or murdered."
Problem gamblers are owned by the casinos and their own weakness; humiliated by their own stupidity; abused by losing their self respect and ability to support themselves; and their life’s work and energy murdered by that addiction. I might add, that African slaves were valuable assets to their masters and were not routinely murdered.
Similarly, problem gamblers are valuable assets to casinos which ply them with frequent player (euphemism for l-o-s-e-r) benefits and take good care of them, until they have no more money or run up a debt they can't pay. A broke or welching gambler has no more value to a casino than a sick or runaway slave did to his master.
Gambling is slavery indeed with a mental bondage that is stronger than any chain of iron.
February 26th, 2010 at 1:13 pm
Are we missing the point?? Whether it is gambling, drinking, or going to Starbucks everyday, it is still freedom of choice. I agree with you that there are those within our community that do have dependency problems on these and many other vices. But does the obliteration of one form of vice lessen the others? If you wish to ban gambling in our city, then by all means go after the other crutches that our citizens have.
February 26th, 2010 at 5:37 pm
The point is not about your personal freedom of choice. Incidentally, you’ve overlooked the lack of freedom of choice of problem gamblers who can’t stop; their families who are neglected and run out of options; the local businesses they stiff; the crimes they commit; and the degraded economic environment that hurts everyone, including you.
Casinos depend on a minority of their gamblers to provide a majority of their income: another example of the 80/20 rule. By definition the 20% group of gamblers that furnishes 80% of casino income are the ones with a potential or actual gambling problem. If you’re in the 80% group of gamblers who treat gambling as entertainment then good for you, but that’s not why the casinos are in business. It’s the 20%ers they are after since they are the most valuable to casinos and Lakewood’s government.
This is like fishing for crabs in the Bering Sea (ala The Most Dangerous Catch). Crab boats don't have to catch all the crabs in the ocean: just enough to make a living. Even though they may miss the majority of crabs, their traps are still called traps: they are designed to ensnare the unwary. Casinos are very much like crab traps in that many "crabs" (gamblers) may swim through and around their trap and not get caught (the 80%ers) but it's the ones that get trapped that they want the most (the 20%ers) and from whom they profit.
Lakewood’s support and profit from its casinos is similar to placing an enticing crab trap in order to catch a targeted species. It doesn't matter how many they catch: it's still a trap. Crab traps are baited to entice crabs to enter, linger, and be caught. Casinos do the same with cheap eats, floor shows, etc. in order for you to spend some time at the tables where the real money is made. Who do you think pays for all this? Winners or losers? However, crabs are luckier because at least there are size and quota limitations. There are no such limits as to how many problem gamblers casinos can catch whether big or small, or how much they can wring out of them. Sadly Lakewood doesn’t care either as long as it gets its share of the spoils.
It is this deliberate and conscious decision to entrap the vulnerable 20% for the casinos’ and government’s gain under the guise of “entertainment” and “essential services” that is damning. The other 80% of gamblers are merely potential victims for another day. We are human beings: we should be treated better than crabs.
That is the point.
PS: It is a poor argument that demands one fix what is beyond their ability in order to avoid fixing what is within their ability. Gambling in Lakewood is within our control. Alcohol and coffee are not. In logic it is called the "Raising the bar fallacy".