GAMBLING
GAMBLING
Gambling is a serious evil. The profits of professional gambling, whether
legal or illegal, are so great that professional gamblers have become,
through investment of profits, increasingly involved and influential in
legitimate business. Even when permitted by law, gambling tends to be
related to crime; when it is illegal, it provides much of the incentive
and resources for organized crime.
As a personal practice, gambling tends to become a habit whose grip grows
stronger. It can lead to tragic consequences: individual characters
demoralized; families made destitute by persistent gambling in hope of
an elusive fortune; economic life for whole communities made poorer.
Habitual gambling, with its undue demands on one's time and attention,
is not in accord with Friends' testimony and simplicity.
Friends are advised to refrain scrupulously from every practice which may
be a first step toward habitual gambling. They should decline to participate
in raffles for charitable purposes, making, if they wish, outright
contributions while rejecting the chance of a gain disproportionate to
the contribution. They are urged to abstain from conventional forms of
gambling, as at horse and dog tracks, in lotteries, and in games of chance.
Even friendly games of cards for money stakes may have serious consequences and
in any case may tend to encourage the gambling habit.
For help see Gamblers Anonymous
and GAweb.
Back to Sonny Moore's Computer Power Ratings
|
