“For some individuals, gambling is a devastating problem,” says the Ottawa health unit. From this you can deduce that the unit is somewhat negative about the siren lure of casinos. This is in response to a recent question about casinos from the city council. With this level of response to casinos, would you dare ask these people about bars?
Since the Ottawa council had already decided in favour of another casino, this particular response was not taken too seriously. Yet it makes you wonder about the paternalistic attitude of our public health units. Having heard similar responses from other health units where they use alarmist tactics to try to stop casinos, you wonder where they get off condemning different aspects of human nature.
People gamble. It’s fun. It’s a rush. The only problem is that in Ontario casinos one sees very few smart gamblers. And, regrettably, there are some who need to know their limit and play within it. What is the most common failure of Ontario gamblers is that while they might know how to play the particular casino game, they have absolutely no understanding of the odds they are dealing with or how to manage their money to take advantage of those odds. And the casino operators are the last people to want to tell you.
What these health units should do is collar these problem gamblers and instead of castigating them for their very human weakness, they should teach them how to protect their money while indulging in gambling. It is the same logic as when you give someone a fish, it lasts through dinner; if you teach them how to fish, they are fed more often. And it is not as though there are large numbers of gamblers to teach. It would hardly be as huge a task as teaching binge drinkers how to drink.
What these problem gamblers need to learn is that the casino is not their friend. They have to understand that the casino is constantly devising ways for them to lose more money faster. This is not a malevolent practice. As long as the gambler knows that the casino is there to make money and not give it away, it goes a long way to ending problem gambling. Of course, since the casinos will always be coming up with new ways to separate the gambler from his money, the health unit will have to update its training programs to counter them. This is a win-win situation for everybody.
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A THANK YOU
Babel-on-the-Bay thanks its readers who sent e-mails pointing out an error in yesterday’s blog. Yes, the company once known as Research in Motion, renamed itself Blackberry some time ago. Other than that error, your writer stands by the comments about the company and Ontario Finance Minister Charles Sousa.
Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry
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