tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6949267467112032987.post650575183507430275..comments2023-10-05T16:54:32.454+01:00Comments on A Tentative Quaker: Gambling , Quakers and meJohn (@bookdreamer)http://www.blogger.com/profile/11576434749272275190noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6949267467112032987.post-79581790555979054142011-07-17T07:56:03.638+01:002011-07-17T07:56:03.638+01:00I have two personal expienernces of gambling which...I have two personal expienernces of gambling which have shaped my opinion on gambling. The first when I was 8 years old and took a coin collector with me to a village fete. It had my pocket money saved up over many months. There was a stall for Bowling for a pig" I had a go and did moderately well, then another and did even better, so that at that point I had won. However I could not leave it and thought I could improve my score, so I just kept on until I had used up all the coins in my saver. Someone else later beat my score. I then realised I had got greedy and stupid. <br />The other expierence was when many years later I employed a bookeeper who stole from my firm. The police found that he was a compulsive gambler at a London casino.<br /><br />My view is that raffles, lottery, even interest from Premium bonds should be regarded as a donation. If you do not expect a return you will not be dissapointed. It is when people get addicted by the greed that the harm is cased by gambling.Peter Schweigernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6949267467112032987.post-73625505560195363622007-12-25T02:46:00.000+00:002007-12-25T02:46:00.000+00:00I enjoy gambling online and in land-based casinos....I enjoy <A HREF="http://www.gambling.ph" REL="nofollow">gambling</A> online and in land-based casinos. I see know problem with opening more casinos.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6949267467112032987.post-4753564443768933472007-07-19T12:30:00.000+01:002007-07-19T12:30:00.000+01:00I think that gambling is just a mean way to fool p...I think that gambling is just a mean way to fool poor desperate uneducated people into thinking they can be rich.<BR/><BR/>It preys on people's weaknesses, and makes people think they shouldn't have to support themselves, that they deserve win a lot of money and never have to work again.<BR/><BR/>It's totally unethical. Imagine if we asked everyone to give pound a week to a national fund for charities, but without the incentive of a big money prize. People would think you were daft - but it's just that kind of mentality we need to foster.<BR/><BR/>I think it's criminal to exploit people's mindless base greed in they way gambling does.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6949267467112032987.post-10967951106080810412007-07-04T00:15:00.000+01:002007-07-04T00:15:00.000+01:00There's no doubt that, since it started (in 1994 o...There's no doubt that, since it started (in 1994 or thereabouts), the National Lottery has poured forth rivers of money for the kind of deserving arts and community projects that suffered so much in the Thatcherite eighties. I would hesitate therefore to criticise your secular project for drawing down its lottery millions and putting them to good use empowering marginalised people. <BR/><BR/>But I will be saddened if Quakers take lottery money, for in doing so they will lose an important part of their Christian testimony. Here's Quaker Faith & Practice (the book of discipline of Britain Yearly Meeting) in a passage dating from the 1950s, arguing that "The persistent appeal to covetousness" evident in gambling publicity (in those days it was football pools) "is fundamentally opposed to the unselfishness which was taught by Jesus Christ and the New Testament as a whole." (QF&P 20:61; see also Luke 12:15, Hebrews 13:5). The passage goes on to say that "the attempt to make a profit out of the inevitable loss and possible suffering of others" is "inseparable from gambling" and the opposite of loving one's neighbour. <BR/><BR/>It's clear to me from the above that Quakers, and many other Christians, oppose gambling not because they are clinging to an antiquated Puritan taboo, but as an expression of deeper principles which should also lead us to condemn the acquisitiveness, exploitation and unsustainability of capitalist growth economics. <BR/><BR/>Of course Quakers have all too often descended into middle-class humbug, condemning the lower orders for idling and gambling while themselves being far too busy speculating and bean-counting to go to the races or otherwise enjoy themselves. <BR/><BR/>But Quakers also threw up their prophets, such as John Woolman, who condemned covetousness in all its forms and called us to a simpler, less destructive and more generous way of living. <BR/><BR/>I find it revealing that William Cobbett, that great defender of the liberties of the English working people (and denouncer of what he saw as the hypocrisy of the Quaker bankers and grain speculators of his age), criticised gaming in very similar terms to those of Quaker Faith & Practice: "The basis of it is covetousness, a desire to take from others something, for which you have given, and intend to give, no equivalent." (Advice to Young Men, 1830)Alan Paxtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08440472850731184251noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6949267467112032987.post-49109743109500311142007-07-03T22:10:00.000+01:002007-07-03T22:10:00.000+01:00Dear Friend, I've read your post twice. Gamblin...Dear Friend,<BR/> I've read your post twice. Gambling is a live issue here in New Mexico also. The state runs a lottery with about 30% of the take going for college scholarships. Indians run casinos with the profits going for improved housing etc.<BR/> Worthwhile, like your child care project?<BR/> I say not. Here, at least, legal gambling takes money from the poor and with much fanfare give sback a small amount. It's seldom the rich who gamble here. It's mostly the poor who buy a few hours of hope with a lottery ticket, and who pump coins into slot machines in the tawdry, dreary, false glamour of the casinos.<BR/> Imagine a world without gambling. Wouldn't it be a better world?<BR/> You can stay clear of gambling. Secular thought says you'll be marginalized, but God has better ideas for you.<BR/> Sincerely, Alison P. MartinezAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com