Apparently I disapprove of gambling...

I do not approve of gambling. But I can't remember why exactly.

There was quite a furor when the Singapore government announced that they were going to build 2 casinos. There were petitions against it, forums bustling with indignant and vehement cries of protest, religious groups moaning "what is the world coming to?".

Personally I didn't like the idea of building the casinos either. But it was more from a dislike of encouraging greater tourism in a place which I already considered over-crowded than a disapproval of the apparently inmoral sport, which many have claimed gambling is.

But now, with the 2 casinos quite nearly finished, and having personally gotten to know people who enjoy playing poker, I think I need to re-think what exactly it is about gambling that I have against really; because I can't for the life of me remember.

Some say gambling, or the sport that is highly dependant on luck, is an immoral game. But from what I've heard, gambling actually depends more on skills than on luck. In fact, gambling is a sport based on probability and odds and evens, and what not, and is actually Maths in action. So it is a highly intellectual game. And if we're really against games of chance so to speak, perhaps we ought to get rid of things like horse-racing, lucky draws, and the lottery as well; or are these supposedly less 'evil' than gambling at casinos. And if they are, can somebody tell me why?

"Gambling is addictive and destroys families." Well I think many things destroy families - extra-marital affairs, the laws that allow for divorce, spousal violence etc. So why is gambling the 'poster boy' for family break-ups then? Gambling is addictive, undeniably, but so are computer games, over-eating and gluttony, smoking, and potato chips. Anything that is addictive has the potential to destroy a person's body and mind, as well as the potential to affect the people related and connected to the addicted person. Over-eating and smoking causes heart problems and may result in death. And I would think a dead person would affect a person as much as, if not more than a person who's alive but addicted to gambling wouldn't it?

So why on earth is gambling "wrong" or "bad'? If we are against gambling, surely we should be against anything that is addictive, that are games of chance, but why do we attack gambling but allow the rest to be named as lesser evils? It's a cop-out isn't it, this society that we live in. We condemn some things but encourage other things, merely by the basis of what suits our agenda best. That, I would think, is a fair greater evil than gambling can ever be, because it seeps into one's heart and soul and mind, and convinces that one is right, just because one says so.

Well since the society we live in is so hypocritical about such things, I don't see any point in standing up to a system that is amoral and value-neutral anyway. In fact, why doesn't everybody just do what they want, that seems to be the way things are nowadays. Wars are start for fun and without basis, innocent people are bombed and terrorized by some person's arbitrary morals and values that says "killing is divine". We live in a world that has no absolutes, where people can do anything they want to do, just as long as they can spin a PR-sounding spiel to fool the fools of the world. But this, is a whole new topic altogether that I shall address in a separate post.