And what about casinos?

Our offices were located in Portomaso Tower. We offered bets on soccer matches and other sports. I had been happily working there for these past two years. When Germany banned the igaming industry, my boss was forced to close by the German goverment/federation, so I was out of a job.

This was just one igaming company out of tens or hundreds we have now in Malta. There was a lot of employment, 19 million in profits, but a lot are closing now. People are losing their jobs and foreigners going back to their respective countries. My point is that there are always two sides to a coin with political decisions: people who stand to gain and people who stand to lose.

So the issue is, do we choose to help the gambler control his addiction (and is it possible?), or we simply ban any sort of betting? We stand to lose eur 19 million in profits plus jobs for people like me. I think there are ways to control addictions: with 19 million euro we could have given them accommodation if they sold their house and maybe a one-year rehab programme.

I believe this is an addiction and the government could have dealt with it with financial help and psychological help the same way drug addiction is helped. After all, the big majority of people who bet know how to control themselves, but then again Malta always seemed to stream along behind major European countries and I don’t blame it because it will be carried away anyway since we are too small to counter Europe’s influence, as happened in my case.

In Malta it’s still legal to bet online, but remember if most of their clients were German (where it is now banned) they will still have to close the business.

If Malta keeps the lottery like Germany has done, or not, who knows. It certainly won’t affect me now unless I find a job in a booth selling lotto tickets.

Same scenario, same attempts to curb gambling and with the same expected results – leave enough loopholes in order to satisfy the cravings of greed.

In many Canadian provinces, there are ‘Help Lines’ for a gambler to call for help, and the government pays for rehabilitation programmes for gamblers.

In Ontario, there are government-sponsored weekly lotteries: Lottario, Lotto 6-49 and the latest (and more costly) Lotto MAX. Not-for-profit organizations hold $100-a-ticket lotteries to help their cause. These NfP organizations support local (government) hospitals and the (large) proceeds of their lotteries go towards purchasing life-saving equipment which the government is either reluctant to provide, or too slow to buy.

So, the expectation that the current proposed legislation will cure the gambling problem in Malta, is totally unfounded. If one is determined to gamble, one will always find a way to do it.

Most of the trading is done on-line of course (not that it diminishes the element of gambling), but imagine a session “in the pit” … would give me a bigger kick than a week on the slot machines.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhcpJRbFluU

Good one! Perhaps that’s why we first watch the news, than sports news which are followed by the financial news and finally the weather forecast.

What if you solicit on the internet? Is that a “public space” in the eyes of the law?

Two decades ago, when such machines were (as far as I know) illegal – except, if I am not mistaken, in what was then known as “Bingo Haven” or something of the sort – they could be found in back rooms in the most popular bars, etc. The people who are addicted to such machines simply do not know when to stop or where to draw the line. My then boyfriend was one such person, even resorting to borrowing Lm20 a day (twenty years ago, when his daily income was much less than half that amount) from one of the unscrupulous bar owners.

Unable to take it any longer, I resorted to listing down all the bars, etc where these machines could be found, detailing the places where they were “hidden”, and sending the list to some police station or other (which one, I can’t remember). They must have acted on it, because the machines seemed to have “disappeared” shortly afterwards. Needless to say, yes, he found alternative forms of gambling, such as (then illegal) football pools.

Another image that springs to mind associated with these gambling machines is of two well-to-do Sliema ladies sitting in a corner bar in a respectable neighbourhood – one of them in her dressing gown and slippers (despite the bar being some 100m away from her home), such was her addiction – chucking in one coin after another, totally oblivious to their surroundings (or to their attire, for that matter).

As for Super 5 (which I only tend to play when the prize is the equivalent of Eur 400,000 or more, and then again, never more than two tickets if at all), I never cease to be amazed when surrounded by obviously unemployed people spending the equivalent of eur 150 a time on lottery tickets.

Yes, maybe Super 5 is just as bad after all, but then, where do you draw the line, if at all?

[Daphne – You don’t. As with alcohol and cigarettes, you can’t draw the line with gambling. It’s either all or nothing, and nothing is clearly out of the question. Something else: you can’t save people from themselves.]

[Daphne – Prostitution is legal. The illegal elements are loitering with intent, soliciting in a public place, operating a brothel and living off the immoral earnings (prostitution) of others. If any woman or man over the age of 18 wants to sell sex for money, it’s perfectly legal, as it obviously would have to be. But then of course to be really legal you would have to register for VAT.]

Next thing you know all the people from Malta buying from Amazon etc will be monitored so as to allow the government to find a way to tax all that.

I agree that the monitoring of net traffic is a necessary evil where national security and criminal issues are concerned, however I don’t feel this is an issue that warrants such action.

Clauses of that sort have been abused time and time again.