Looking for adventure? What are the odds on Mark Greene waking up to the new gambling culture? Place your bets please.
Something’s been creeping up on me. On us really. A subtle shift. A different scent in the wind. A slight modification to the way things are done. It’s always been there, of course, but recently it seems that it’s become more than a sideshow, more than a visiting circus that shows up in town once a year. No, something has moved into the neighbourhood and it isn’t going away. And that something is gambling culture.
Of course, we’ve had betting shops and the pools for ever but to the pools add the Lootery, its colonisation of prime time TV and its ubiquity in newsagents. And to the Lootery add those endless kids’ TV prize competitions which don’t look like gambling but, given the cost of the phone call, are essentially just that – for the overpriced cost of the call you have a chance of winning a prize which has just been paid for many times over by the thousands of calls kids have made – with the permission of an adult of course.
And to the prize competitions, add all the little things that never used to be there but now are. So I’m sauntering into a Rugby match and I’m offered a scratch card for a £1 – when did this begin at Rugby matches? And what terrible odds. I pick up some petrol and there nestled among the Daily Mail and the Times and all the usual suspects is The Daily Sportsman, the new betting newspaper, which will tell you the odds on everything from Ashley Cole staying at Arsenal to Steve Chalke becoming David Cameron’s first Health Minister.
And then you’re watching Middlesborough Football Club, and, as if that wasn’t penance enough, there slap bang in the middle of their shirts is an ad for 888.com, an internet betting site. Now this is a curious thing since gambling advertising is not, according to the 2005 Gambling Act, meant to be “targeted at children, young people or other vulnerable groups” and should not feature people who are or are seen to be under 25. But there again perhaps putting your logo on a shirt that is worn by people under 25 and is seen by tens of millions of people on TV before 9pm isn’t really advertising. And perhaps people under 18, somewhat conspicuous in a Coral Betting Shop, don’t have any access to the web. And perhaps Tinkerbell will be the next England Football Manager.
Talking of the next England Football Manager, and the odds on Christianity columnists doing so have risen to 5 to 1 on, you’re sitting watching the Ten O’clock News and there’s an item about the next England Football Manager – for a change – and a spokesman from a betting chain is telling you the odds on the top five or six candidates. Now at one level this is simply a sophisticated version of vox pops. Instead of doing research among football fans in general about their preferred choice the media ask those helpful people from the betting industry. Of course, it’s true that, for some people, one indication of the extent to which they really believe that something is going to happen is to put their money where their mouth is. But even in the case of gamblers it doesn’t tell you who they think is the best candidate, simply the candidate they think the Football Association is likely to choose. When it comes to betting the word ‘favourite’ doesn’t mean ‘most liked’, ‘most able’ or even ‘best choice’ it just means ‘most backed to win’.
And then you discover that poker was one of the bestselling games at Christmas and that the number of internet Poker sites is burgeoning. Interestingly, if you type in ‘poker’ to Google in the UK, up pop 22,900,000 references. And that’s over 15,000,000 more than for ‘Jesus’. Indeed, online poker is so addictive that one American website calls it the ‘crack cocaine of gambling’. More chilling than that is the overall sense that gambling – in all its forms – has burrowed its way into the heart of our culture. Recently, Michael O’Leary, RyanAir’s CEO, announced that he would be introducing in-flight gambling and that this might obviate the need for air fares totally. “Ultimately,” he said, “entertainment will be where the money is.” He’s probably right.
So, why is gambling on the increase? Partly, it’s simply that the laws have been liberalised and that has brought gambling to more people in more forms. Partly it’s for more worrying reasons.
Historically, of course, Christians have been very wary of gambling for the simple reason that it makes poor people poorer. That was certainly the case in the 18th and 19th centuries when for the poor a lost bet could mean the difference between survival and the workhouse, between a meal and starvation. And it is still the case that gambling impoverishes the poor and lines the pockets of the rich – and that applies as much to the Lottery as it does to casinos.
In the UK today there are between 300,000 and 400,000 problem gamblers and that is likely to rise. And whilst the industry has positioned itself as encouraging ‘responsible gambling’ and formed the Responsibility in Gambling Trust (RIGT), the reality that leaflets on responsible gambling have been produced for schools and that local authorities have begun to create gambling advice services tells its own story. Interestingly, Middlesborough was the first authority to do so and that is naturally an outcome as random as the spin of a roulette wheel and no doubt had nothing to do with those non-ads on the city’s football shirts.
Something’s been creeping up on me. On us really. A subtle shift. A different scent in the wind. A slight modification to the way things are done. It’s always been there, of course, but recently it seems that it’s become more than a sideshow, more than a visiting circus that shows up in town once a year. No, something has moved into the neighbourhood and it isn’t going away. And that something is gambling culture.
Of course, we’ve had betting shops and the pools for ever but to the pools add the Lootery, its colonisation of prime time TV and its ubiquity in newsagents. And to the Lootery add those endless kids’ TV prize competitions which don’t look like gambling but, given the cost of the phone call, are essentially just that – for the overpriced cost of the call you have a chance of winning a prize which has just been paid for many times over by the thousands of calls kids have made – with the permission of an adult of course.
And to the prize competitions, add all the little things that never used to be there but now are. So I’m sauntering into a Rugby match and I’m offered a scratch card for a £1 – when did this begin at Rugby matches? And what terrible odds. I pick up some petrol and there nestled among the Daily Mail and the Times and all the usual suspects is The Daily Sportsman, the new betting newspaper, which will tell you the odds on everything from Ashley Cole staying at Arsenal to Steve Chalke becoming David Cameron’s first Health Minister.
And then you’re watching Middlesborough Football Club, and, as if that wasn’t penance enough, there slap bang in the middle of their shirts is an ad for 888.com, an internet betting site. Now this is a curious thing since gambling advertising is not, according to the 2005 Gambling Act, meant to be “targeted at children, young people or other vulnerable groups” and should not feature people who are or are seen to be under 25. But there again perhaps putting your logo on a shirt that is worn by people under 25 and is seen by tens of millions of people on TV before 9pm isn’t really advertising. And perhaps people under 18, somewhat conspicuous in a Coral Betting Shop, don’t have any access to the web. And perhaps Tinkerbell will be the next England Football Manager.
Talking of the next England Football Manager, and the odds on Christianity columnists doing so have risen to 5 to 1 on, you’re sitting watching the Ten O’clock News and there’s an item about the next England Football Manager – for a change – and a spokesman from a betting chain is telling you the odds on the top five or six candidates. Now at one level this is simply a sophisticated version of vox pops. Instead of doing research among football fans in general about their preferred choice the media ask those helpful people from the betting industry. Of course, it’s true that, for some people, one indication of the extent to which they really believe that something is going to happen is to put their money where their mouth is. But even in the case of gamblers it doesn’t tell you who they think is the best candidate, simply the candidate they think the Football Association is likely to choose. When it comes to betting the word ‘favourite’ doesn’t mean ‘most liked’, ‘most able’ or even ‘best choice’ it just means ‘most backed to win’.
And then you discover that poker was one of the bestselling games at Christmas and that the number of internet Poker sites is burgeoning. Interestingly, if you type in ‘poker’ to Google in the UK, up pop 22,900,000 references. And that’s over 15,000,000 more than for ‘Jesus’. Indeed, online poker is so addictive that one American website calls it the ‘crack cocaine of gambling’. More chilling than that is the overall sense that gambling – in all its forms – has burrowed its way into the heart of our culture. Recently, Michael O’Leary, RyanAir’s CEO, announced that he would be introducing in-flight gambling and that this might obviate the need for air fares totally. “Ultimately,” he said, “entertainment will be where the money is.” He’s probably right.
So, why is gambling on the increase? Partly, it’s simply that the laws have been liberalised and that has brought gambling to more people in more forms. Partly it’s for more worrying reasons.
Historically, of course, Christians have been very wary of gambling for the simple reason that it makes poor people poorer. That was certainly the case in the 18th and 19th centuries when for the poor a lost bet could mean the difference between survival and the workhouse, between a meal and starvation. And it is still the case that gambling impoverishes the poor and lines the pockets of the rich – and that applies as much to the Lottery as it does to casinos.
In the UK today there are between 300,000 and 400,000 problem gamblers and that is likely to rise. And whilst the industry has positioned itself as encouraging ‘responsible gambling’ and formed the Responsibility in Gambling Trust (RIGT), the reality that leaflets on responsible gambling have been produced for schools and that local authorities have begun to create gambling advice services tells its own story. Interestingly, Middlesborough was the first authority to do so and that is naturally an outcome as random as the spin of a roulette wheel and no doubt had nothing to do with those non-ads on the city’s football shirts.
Gambling is of course highly addictive and teenagers are more vulnerable than adults – one in seven of teen lottery players will become addicted versus one in 10 adults – and though the majority of them are unlikely to run up £700,000 debts like young Wayne Rooney the impact on them is likely to be rather more corrosive.
Focusing on problem gambling, however, is not the big issue. The big issue is the inexorable and increasing gamblification of leisure. Of course, there are other ways to spend money on entertainment that might be seen as just as wasteful as gambling, or just as emotionally satisfying as gambling – a lavish meal or a trip to the Opera – but not all amusements are equal and at a deep level gambling feeds the acquisitive urge. More worrying than that, however, is the increasing sense that what people are looking for is not the money but the intensity that gambling adds to the experience.
As Skybet ads put it “It matters more when there’s money on it.” Watching the match is not enough. Great football is not enough. Lets spice it up. And that is increased even further by the introduction of in-match betting. So, you can be sitting watching Manchester United playing Bolton on Sky and the score is one nil. Up pops an ad on the pitch-side advertising hoarding informing you that you can now bet online on a 2-1 United win. Well, that will spice it up a bit more. And as for a dull match? Nothing better in a dull match than adding some smidgen of zing by putting on a bet on the outcome. What begins to matter is not the sporting fixture itself – who wins, who scores, how well it is played, but the bet. The bet focuses the mind and heart on a particular outcome.
Yes, as the ad says, it does matter more when there’s money on it. And herein perhaps lies the reason for the broader increase in gambling. Are people really trying to get rich quick? Is that the motivation behind all this gambling? Certainly, the growth of the gambling culture is yet one more component of a ‘more-more’ society that fosters discontent with what we have. And certainly as Christians we have plenty to say about that. Our faith is about generosity not acquisition, about a God who gives, not a God who accumulates, and the Bible exhorts us against the corrosive impact of the lust for money:
‘The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil,’ Paul warns us in 1 Timothy 6:10, and goes on to say that, ‘some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.’
But beyond the lure of sudden wealth, or even marginally increased resources, what the bet adds is risk, or perhaps more tellingly, adventure. People are looking for some adventure, for something that matters. And where else are they to find it?
Most people don’t find much meaning in their work. Our armed forces may be fighting in Iraq but we are not engaged in the kind of war that galvanises the entire population behind some shared high and noble cause. So where is the adventure in life? Where is the risk? Where is the task that stretches us, the cause that invigorates us? Where is the activity that calls on our courage, that tests our mettle? Is not life in 21st century Britain somewhat trivial? But a bet puts me on edge, sets my sails to the wind. I could lose. I could win. But either way I have entered the fray. Better to have bet and lost than never to have bet at all.
Sadly, I expect many Christians are also yearning for some great adventure. And what adventure do we set before our people. To put out the chairs? To collect the collection? Good and vital tasks. But is that it? Tony Campolo once said that “Evangelism is an invitation to join a movement to change the world.” Evangelism is more than that, as I’m sure Tony would agree, but it is certainly nothing less.
Are we a people of adventure? Are we trusting God for something beyond ourselves? Are we involved in making stands for justice in our workplace, for decent food in our schools? Are we praying for opportunities to bless people and witness to people, despite the possible consequences? Are we pushing off from the shore? Or is everything around us in Great Britain wondrous and lovely and utterly in line with kingdom values?
There is a huge job to be done. And it will involve risk. It will involve failure, as well as success. The Gospel is a Gospel of transformation and that means not only that extraordinary things are possible but that the ordinary is transformed – a dull job becomes an opportunity to serve the King of the Universe, a payrise an opportunity for generosity, a glass of water an occasion to serve Christ. The wonder of the Gospel is, yes, in its truth, yes, in its beauty as a way and, yes, in its power to bring meaning to life, to set before each one of us a high call to be part of a global mission to change the world. And if we are to win the people of Britain, we will not only have to show them that the Christian way is safer, more comfortable, more wholesome but also more deeply satisfying, exhilarating and liberating.
It’s a safe bet. But what, I wonder, are any of us prepared to risk to demonstrate it?
Mark Greene is executive director of London Institute for Contemporary Christianity.
