tim's experiment

Last week, in preparation for the football World Cup, the government launched an anti-gambling campaign. This clearly came from the same rhetorical neck of the woods as the anti-drugs campaign. Young people were urged not to gamble at all. There were no half measures, no exemptions for “harmless flutters” or games with friends for nominal stakes. Our young were firmly told to stear clear of gambling of all kinds. It seems that officials accept, at least as far as the younger generation is concerned, that gambling is a social evil and a potentially dangerous addiction.

This is a view with which on the whole I agree despite having, long ago, enjoyed a short but lucrative career as a bingo caller. Some people do not become addicted to gambling, just as some poeple do not become addicted to tobacco or, for that matter, heroin. But the harm done to those who get hooked probably ought to outweigh the rather modest pleasure provided to those who don’t. However this praiseworthy point of view sits rather oddly wth some other government activities. There was a “Don’t gamble fun fair” opened by Acting Secretary for Home Affairs Florence Hui, Director of Broadcasting Franklin Wong Wah-kay, Chairman of the Ping Wo Fund Advisory Committee (don’t ask) Dr Yau Wing-kwong, member of the Betting and Lotteries Commission Tsang Chi-hung, Director of Operations of the Hong Kong Police Paul Hung, chairman of the Hong Kong Football Association Brian Leung, and Legco member Dr Samson Tam.  Some of these people must be considered to be either confused or perhaps a touch hypocritical. The Betting and Lotteries Commission is not, as far as we know, dedicated to the abolition and suppression of betting and lotteries. Nor is the Hong Kong Police Force, whose efforts in this area are limited to protecting the lucrative momopoly in legal gambling enjoyed bythe Hong Kong Jockey Club. RTHK is far from free of information of interest to and intended for gamblers. And the government itself does very well out of the Jockey Club.

There was an interesting letter in the Post this morning, apparently part of C.Y. Leung’s non-campaign for the Chief Executive’s job, in which Mr Leung pointed out that the rather stingy space provided for orang otangs in our local zoo was no worse than the space provided for many human beings in our city. Mr Leung offered the statistical snippet that 43 per cent of all housing units in Hong Kong are smaller than 40 square metres. He did not, as he might have done, go on to compare this with the rolling hectares provided for the fun and games of the small minority of the population who can afford to own race horses.

There was a time when the government did not ban dangerous drugs. Instead it sold a monopoly to a person called the “Opium Farmer” and protected his monopoly by prosecuting alternative suppliers and their customers. This now seems a rather disreputable arrangement. It is, however, exactly what the government still does with gambling. What is the point of holding fun fairs urging people not to gamble when there is a government-sanctioned and approved betting shop on every housing estate, and so many top people are members of our local four-legged casino that the Court of Appeal thinks it would be hard to find a judge who was not on the roll? One thing which never works with young people is that line that goes “don’t do as I do; do as I say.”