No Gambling on Christian Holy Days

This morning on Nine’s Today show, I caught a short discussion on the decision to allow NSW TAB to operate on Good Friday.  Karl Stefanovic, a catholic, said he didn’t care that it didn’t concern him as he would be doing his own thing on the day.  The guest commenter, editor of Woman’s Day/ Woman’s Weekly( can’t remember) said something to the effect that Australia was traditionally a christian nation and that Good Friday should be day of rest ( one wonders if this includes her staff).

The religious (meaning of course the Christian religious as there are no other religions of importance in Australia) are up in arms:

 

Religious groups are furious Tabcorp has decided to open for gambling on Good Friday for the first time.

The decision to allow punters to place bets at agencies and hotels comes as New South Wales authorities consider an application by big retailers to open on Easter Sunday.[source]

 

Religious groups, notably the Catholic Church and the Salvation army argue  that money is the only thing sacred to gambling institutions and that religious (read Christian) holidays should be protected.

I do have to replace my irony meter every time the Catholic church talks about profit, greed etc from its mighty cathedrals with gold and fine linen adorning the alter.

We have this from Gerard Burn, Salvation Army:

“These things ought to be kept sacrosanct within our community,” he said. “Once we begin to water down these days that are significant days on the Christian calendar, then we start to see gambling becomes, in a sense, the new religion.”[source]

Is that the real issue competition, revenue draining or otherwise?  Both religion and the gambling institutions screw you, it’s just whether its a quickie or a long hard…you get the picture.

The truth of the matter is that preventing gambling on either of these days does absolutely nothing for problem gamblers.  

Nothing,  but it does help to  maintain Christian religious privilage.

 The real problem is problem gambling, but tackling that issue means looking at poker machines and looking at the cut that governments take from their operation…

A novel solution.  Reduce the number of poker machines and tax churches? No?  Come to think of it at least there is a small chance of getting something when you gamble as opposed to that promise of eternal life that dangles out of reach –  talk about bait advertising.

The fact of the matter  is that the public largely  does not care for religious authority anymore (well some people – SA still pays lip service).  The churches are losing control.  

On another persoanl note, when visiting with my mother at the local church she grew up attending it was common knowledge that the 9am service was the quick one as the priest often finished early so that he could make it to the track.  Additionally my great uncles, both Catholic priests were renown for getting the “early mail” and knowing the form guide back to front.  From all accounts they suplemented their income quite well.

And before the comment is made I’d gladly give up all religious holidays if it meant the church butting out of politics, peoples personal lives.

Until such time I’ll take the day off

PS 

I used to work for one Australia’s largest online gambling companies, specifically training people in regards to our requirements under Responsible Gaming Legislation, and in helping phone operators determine/identify clients with potential gambling problems

We also used to have Christmas and Good Friday Off, I loved it.  It meant that you had two guaranteed days off a year

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