ME and Ophelia

CRAZY UK GAMBLING BILL
Super-casinos open 24 hours coming from US to UK

Here is a big gamble. A big shake-up in the gambling laws has been announced. MPs back gambling laws shake-up.

For future reference, I am posting here below a copy of a comment I left at Clive Soley's post on Gambling. Unfortunately, my comment was written in a hurry and didn't cover all that I wanted to say.

Clive posted his request for comments shortly before he was due to vote. It's amazing how some things seem to be rushed through the House without much delay. Yesterday's vote by MPs was a second stage. The crucial third stage, that sets things in stone, is yet to come (early on next year I think) which, thankfully, gives time for voters to object.



The Bond spirit stalks the casino. An illusion of glamour created by film makers.



In reality casinos are glorified amusement arcades, packed to the rafters with banks of loud slot machines and generally patronised by poor folk who gamble their weekly housekeeping money. Behind the scenes, casinos are dens of inequity, funded by degenerates. What about UK gun laws? Armed security guards ala Vegas will be needed to patrol casinos in Blackpool.

Here is the comment: Clive, I agree with every word Peter Todd has posted here. ***Gambling destroys lives and families and is a cruel lure to working people who are tempted with the possibility of escaping their economic condition, when the reality of the economic bargain is masked that the little they have is being fleeced away.***

Except I would go as far as to say gambling should be MORE tightly controlled than alcohol, smoking etc. Someone in the British government is being very naive by even contemplating the introduction of such a dirty business. Casinos may seem lily white these days - but don't you believe it - they are just more slick and sophisticated in the layers of connections that go to launder money from drugs, arms, tax evaders etc. The gangsters must be rubbing their hands with glee knowing the UK will endorse them and give them even more respectability. The casino industry behind the scenes is degenerate.

Many people with addictive personalities who have champagne taste and beer income get very quickly addicted to gambling. Casinos and everything to do with the business of gambling is a sleazy business that attracts many people behind the scenes who are up to no good, looking to make a quick buck - money laundering, skimming, cheating and rackets of various kinds, to name a few.

If gambling was made less restrictive it would only be because those who have a vested interest - or the government - are looking to make money out of people's weaknesses: nothing else. Pure greed all round. Horrible.

What good would come out of more people gambling? None that I can think of. Las Vegas was not built on winning customers. Casinos are fixed 95% or higher in favour of the house. It's a low-life business with high stakes that needs expensive sophisticated security and monitoring. Probably what is earned in tax revenues will be spent on servicing a gambling industry that spawns all sorts of social ills.

No person benefits from gambling except the casino owners and the State. There are no other winners. Of the customers who do win - 99% of the time lose it back trying to win more.

Slippery slope. Seedy business. Can't think of any good that would come out of expanding gambling in this country. Las Vegas had well over 70 years experience of running gambling halls to get where it is. There's a lot more to the casino industry than meets the eye. If people want to gamble, there plenty of existing ways and means - right down to scratchcards at local corner stores.

If there was an opportunity to vote on the issue - I would vote against the introduction of more casinos - it's a mugs game with a dangerous and ugly side to it that I do not want to see introduced into Britain. We don't have to copy everything America does. Not everything they have is great you know. The underbelly of Las Vegas and Atlantic City is ugly and mean and has a dark side that attracts organised crime like bees to a honeypot.
Posted by: Ingrid at October 31, 2004 10:46 AM