Gambling and the lottery: usual losers and unusual winners

Quote

“Gambling is the son of avarice and the father of despair.”  French proverb

“Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people.”  W.C. Fields

News
Journalists have been rushing headlong to speak to a retired couple in Canada this week, when it was revealed that they had given away 98% of their £6.7million lottery jackpot from July.  After giving something to each family member, Allen and Violet Large donated the rest to churches, hospitals, fire departments and other good causes. They bought nothing for themselves, keeping back only £120,000 of their winnings for a rainy day. 

When interviewed, the retired welder and his wife stated that they were quite content with their modest home and had everything they needed.  The international media were intrigued to find people who are apparently immune to the lure of unearned wealth, and who used their windfall to favour other people and build relationships. 

Contrast this with the more common negative effects of gambling, and its rapid growth online, which is more likely to lead to problem gambling (defined as “gambling to a degree that compromises, disrupts or damages family, personal or recreational pursuits”).  Problem gamblers are twice as likely to divorce, 20 times more likely to attempt suicide, and have higher levels of debt than non gamblers; two thirds of them commit crimes to support their habit.

The number of such gamblers is around 0.5% of the population in UK.  Although this is lower than in Hong Kong (5.3%), USA (3.5%) or South Africa (1.4%), it still amounts to 250,000 people – compared with 327,000 problem drug users in the UK. 

Despite the uplifting story from Canada, the reality is that addictive gambling produces two groups of losers: not just the majority of gamblers who lose their bets, but the far greater number of third party losers - partners, families and friends who must suffer financially, physically or relationally as a consequence.

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When the British government was debating whether to start a national lottery in the 1990s, our colleagues at the Jubilee Centre reviewed the arguments for and against such an initiative; although the statistics in their report are dated, the principles of the argument are still relevant today; see http://www.jubilee-centre.org/resources/the_case_against_the_national_lottery

Walk the talk

None of us sets out to become a problem gambler; it happens when we cross several small boundaries.  Some of the warning signs are hiding from others the amount spent, starting to borrow in order to gamble, difficulty in saying no, or needing to bet more and more to satisfy the urge.  If you gamble regularly, no matter how harmless you think it is, choose to make yourself accountable to someone else, who can detect any warning signs in time.

The last word

From the Bible, 1 Timothy 6:9 “But those who are determined to be rich fall into a temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful lusts, such as drown men in ruin and destruction.”