What Harm is there in Gambling?

White Ribbon, Volume 23, Issue 5, 1 July 1951, Page 6

What Harm is there in Gambling?

“If gambling is a bare-faced defiance of a central law of life, the effects of it may be expected to be deadly," states a Manifesto issued by the Christchurch Council of Christian Congregations. “If yOu think there is little or no harm in gzmbling, then consider further these deadly effects on the gambler.: 1. The Effects on the Gambler Himself “The gambling habit takes its toll of a man’s character. It affects bis efficiency. Tlie lure of the unearned creates in many a feverish excitement through which they lose grip. Such men are incapacitated for those problems and tasks with which they ought to grapple with their whole soul. A decline in interest is a decline in real efficiency, and that is an inevitable consequence of the formation of the gambling habit. “The victims of the mania are rendered impatient of the slow but wholesome methods of industry and thrift. A man who finds himself possessed of a week’s wages, through a lucky guess about horses, is sure to find his estimate of values disturbed, and the honest way of earning is depreciated in bis eyes. Such a mental condition is not other than a first-class disaster. “He is in danger of becoming a mere Micawber, spinelessly waiting for something to turn up. Charles Kingsley, for all his passionate love of horses, said, I turned from the race-course because it tempted me to bet, and betting tempted me into the company of passions unworthy, not merely of a scholar and a gentleman, but of an honest and rational bargeman and collier Gambling, whether fot large sums or small, blurs the margin between right and wrong. We have yet to bear of a sporting firm which counts it as in a man’s favour that lie is a good, steady gambler. “A habit rooted in covetousness must be deadly. This is borne out by the verdict of our judges, ludge Bring of the Commonwealth, said, “There is hardly a newspaper but in it you see that some b young man has been brought to downfall by yielding to the accursed fascination of gambling. You talk about Drink, but it is not responsible for half the crimes that betting and gambling are.’ Judge Cooper, of the Dominion, said: ‘A very iarge proportion of the crimes of forgery, embezzlement and breaches of trust are committed bv those who have become victims of the gambling habit. Our welfare is being menaced, and the tone of the community lowered by the prevalence of the habit. Men and women should that gambling is vicious and immoral and against the best interests of home, family and state.’ SOCIAL EFFECTS 2. The Social Effects “Gambling destroys the mutual character of life. All normal transactions bless him who gives ard him who takes. The buyer and the seller, the worker and the employer, are both benefited by a deal. So it is too, in normal amusement. In gambling alone there is but a single benefit—that to the winner. To the loser there is a blank loss. “Herbert Spencer puts it thus: ‘Gambling is first

nain without merit, and then gain through another’s loss.’ “It is not consistent with any social code or with brotherhood. It is the most wretched form of selfish individualism. The gambler is pre-eminently the exploiter of bis fellows. There is nothing that holds back social reform more surely than the gambling habit.

3. The Religious Harm is as Great as Any.

“Religion is based on ;i relationship to God, who is love, and whose method is law. No man can maintain a religious life if lie plunges into a hectic world in which law is set aside and in which luck rules. To set aside the reason and affections and surrender self and one's fortune to the speed of a horse, or the obliquity of a ball is surely to sin against Him, as well as to wrong the human brotherhood Christians have to consider further the question of stewardship in relation *o money. I’he possessions of men are not their own in the sense that they can do as they like with them. They also have to return an affirmative answer to the ancient question, ‘Ain I my brother’s keeper?’ They have to consider not merely the personal effects of an action, but its social effect. The bearing of all this on the national life is obvious. National life is the sum of individual life. A nation in which gambling is entrenched is a nation whose efficiency is lowered; whose readiness for social advance is dangerously checked, and whose morals are pitched low. YVhen Machiavelli was asked what could he done to lower the vitality of a neighbouring state Ins reply' was, ‘Teach them to gamble.’ The enormous volume of gambling indulged in in this country is a menace to New Zealand."