Yorkregion.com - Columns - Sad to think gambling tops in entertainment
Sad to think gambling tops in entertainment
Bernie O'Neill
Columns
Apr 10, 2008 12:52 AM
By: Bernie O'Neill
I read what I thought was a piece of bad news this week, although it was presented like good news.
Gambling has become the No. 1 entertainment employer in Canada, with more than 260,000 people employed by the industry — 135,000 of them directly.
It seems other jobs in the entertainment field, such as accordion player, mime or juggler, just can’t keep up.
The average Canadian spent $513 gambling in 2006, according to the report.
This massive growth has happened in just a couple of decades.
What I found humorous was it suggested gambling had “pumped $15 billion into” the economy.
“Into” the economy?
You could easily say gambling has just “sucked $15 billion out of” the economy and will continue to do so, with the blessing of governments at all levels who are now addicted to the lottery and casino revenues.
Many studies have shown it is questionable whether or not gambling brings an economic benefit.
Unless you are luring gamblers from some other jurisdiction, it doesn’t generate dollars. It just diverts them from some other form of entertainment into a government-run form of entertainment and into government coffers.
When lotteries first came on the scene in Ontario, we were told the profits would help build hockey and curling rinks and so on.
So it seemed to have this wholesome backdrop to it.
The reality is only a fraction of the government’s gambling profits go to these targeted areas.
The rest goes to general revenues and what the government does with it is up to them.
What I find sad is so much of people’s entertainment dollar is spent on lottery tickets or their monthly trip to the casino, there’s not much left.
So when no one comes out to pay $10 to see the local band play live or watch the team play in the playoffs or see the actors perform on the community theatre stage, you can argue they have spent their entertainment dollars for the month and that’s why they’re staying home, watching the tube.
Sure, gambling is more exciting. But that’s the point.
You’re offering people this false sense that they can get rich with the scratch of a ticket or pull of a lever.
A tiny handful gets rich and it’s all very well publicized, which keeps the rest of us buying.
I buy the odd $1 lottery ticket for fun and I took part in the office NCAA basketball pool.
Also for fun.
But I tend to worry about gambling and even how big a deal poker has become among young people.
Or maybe I’m just starting to sound like a dad, who worries about what his sons will get into.
My father used to call buying lottery tickets “taxation for idiots”. I’ve heard it more nicely called “additional taxation for people who can’t do math”.
And if the figures are right, that’s an additional $500 a year worth of taxation for each one of us.
Average.
Some of us are spending less, some a lot more.
(A little lesson in statistics here: buying three 6/49 tickets for one draw does not triple your chances — you now simply own three tickets that each have a one in a gazillion chance of winning something. Better to just buy one ticket and save some money.)
That’s not to mention the organized crime and prostitution that seems to be attracted to casinos. And the lives that are shattered by gambling addiction.
Or the other worthy charities out there who don’t get our donation, but must rely on getting part of the $100 million given out each year by the Trillium Foundation.
Or hospital fundraisers that must compete with the lotteries.
Meanwhile, every corner store and grocery checkout counter is turned into a mini casino and new lottery tickets of every kind seem to be launched every month.
Sure, I know most of us can buy a lottery ticket once in a while just for fun, or go to the casino a couple of times a year without losing our shirts or becoming addicted.
It offers us the faint hope we can escape from our drudgery by winning the big jackpot.
It’s just that all those other forms of entertainment, like going to see a junior hockey game, taking in a play or checking out a band at a local pub and buying their CD, also offers us an escape from our drudgery, even if it is only temporary.
When our own government is going head-to-head with all these other forms of entertainment, that might just highlight talent other than dealing blackjack, reloading slot machines or vacuuming casino floors, we have to start wondering if we have gone too far.