Ethics Archives
Last week I went on a casino night out with work. The casino in question was running a special deal where you could get a two course meal, a glass of wine and a £5 chip for £12, not a bad price at all should you be in to that kind of thing.
After the meal we hit the casino floor of course and starting on roulette I managed to hit the right colour three times in a row, turning my £5 free chip into £15 hard cash. I continued to play on the table for a while and by the end of the night I cashed out £23 - enough to cover the cost of the meal, the extra side I got, the two glasses of wine and the coke I had had with still having £1 more than I went in with.
On Sunday I concluded this story with "so it just shows you - gambling does pay." Of course everyone laughed at this point because we all know that in the long term it doesn't pay.
Statistically if you play for long enough you will almost certainly lose. However it is somewhat of a misnomer to say "the house always wins." Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don't, this time the majority of our group walked out of the casino having won more money than they lost, next time it will probably be the other way round.
But the moral of the story is that gambling isn't inherently immoral or dangerous - what is dangerous is the tendency of people to get out of control, act irresponsibility and do things they know they shouldn't.
We have to accept this because it's probably all of us at one time or another; we all make mistakes and learn from those mistakes. Saying "well you just shouldn't go a casino" is no better than going there and losing all your money - the real strength of character comes from being able to go there, act responsibility and enjoy yourself.
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Our next event is on Sunday 1 July 2012. The meeting starts at 5:30pm. More...