AM I alone in thinking the hoopla over Super Casinos is a big fuss over nothing?
What's wrong with people having a bit of a flutter? What's wrong with having a punt at the roulette wheel or losing a few quid at the blackjack tables.
At the last count there were only 300,000 gambling addicts in Britain, which accounts for less than one per cent of the population. And I can't see the Government's Bill which will allow a gambling free-for-all changing that.
However, the way certain sections of the right-wing Press are behaving you'd think that anyone who sets foot in a casino or puts a few pence into a one-armed bandit is on the road to financial ruin.
Yes, I've read the reports which say the partners of pathological gamblers are 10 times more likely to end up victims of domestic violence, but that doesn't mean everyone who puts a few quid on the Grand National is going to steal the kids' dinner money or bash up the wife to get the housekeeping.
The fact is compulsive gamblers, drinkers and eaters will always find a way to feed their habit. And if we're going to try to save compulsive people from themselves, then we'd better close all the pubs and the cake shops while we're at it.
As a society we cannot cosset and protect people from every ill that might befall them. Temptation is everywhere - but the fact is 99 per cent of people couldn't care less about casinos and wouldn't dream of popping into one on the way home from the office.
The only people who need protection from gambling are under age children. The rest of us are big enough and ugly enough to look after ourselves.
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