Freddie P's Blog

March 2, 2007 @ 08:50

I have to laugh at the increasing number of anti-gambling commercials on television these days. The province is heading towards a huge crisis and it's been creating through government greed.

I'd like to compare it to cigarette smoking but I can't. Society was ignorant towards the dangers of smoking and by the time all the data was in it was too late to ban cigarettes completely. There was a huge industry at stake and too many jobs on the line, so the strategy was to educate people and hope the problem disappeared by attrition.

Gambling is different. When casino gambling was first introduced to the province in the early 90's they had the data. They knew of the problems. They were aware of the affects it could have on society.

But instead of resisting, they pushed forward and went for the dough and today we have an alarming problem with people addicted to gaming.

And the government's only response is to offer a few TV commercials about the dangers of gambling, done I'm sure just to so they can say they're addressing the problem.

I have to admit, I'm a little biased. I've never been much of a gambler and I can't stand casinos. The blinking lights, the noisy bells and the sorry looking buggers who are actually connected to slot machines with their credit cards make me feel sick to my stomach.

If it was up to me I'd shut down every goddamn one of them tomorrow.