Gambling Ad

I’ve received a glossy card through the post, upon which is the face of a well-known celebrity. When opened, an electronic voice tells a joke. Jackpotjoy, which funded the promotion, evidently has access to an exceptionally healthy marketing budget. This company pays out £1 million each day in prizes and is known to accept up to $6.4 billion in wagers in a 12-month period. The Gambling Commission claims that nationwide, £14.4 billion is spent in the UK (Apr 2017 – Mar 2018), amounting to an annual increase of 4.5%. No wonder these companies can advertise their products so lavishly. 

Gambling works because of two utterly unassailable facts: 

Most people want to be richer than they are but without the trouble of working for it;

Most gamblers will lose more than they win. 

Sadly, the greed it cultivates and the poverty it generates do not outweigh the jobs created and the good causes to which the big companies like to donate. The NHS even feels the need to have a section of its website dedicated to helping people who are addicted to gambling away their money: https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-body/gambling-addiction/

Nineteenth and Twentieth-century nonconformists waged war on the drink, tobacco and gambling industries, something their heirs have quietly dropped and discarded. Seeing the damage wrought by all three, one cannot but wonder that the fathers were far wiser than the children. 

He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its income. This too is vanity. Ecc. 5:10