“ANTI-GAMBLING” DEPARTMENT

White Ribbon, Volume 19, Issue 6, 1 July 1947, Page 2

“ANTI-GAMBLING” DEPARTMENT

Superintendent, Mrs. Pirrt tt. "Money Without Work" Addre** Given by Mr*. Hiett, Dominion Vice President.

“What’s the harm?’ Rabies and art unions are proclaimed harmless. A motor-car or a piano, or even a cushion or a bag of coal lor <ml. i> tempting, and ro one will miss M. E cn children are induced by small stuns, for some prize, to part with their pennies, ami if success comes, they have acquired a taste for gambling. The principle, or want of principle, is the desire to make money without work.

What is it in human nature to which gambling makes such an appeal? The answer is, man’s love of excitement,

and his greed. Gambling excites. As one speaker said, “Gambling tickles the covetous pa >ion. A man purchases Kirills by risking bis money with the chance of getting someone else’s. Some of those who find life too flat and stale escape into a fantastic world by gambling.” Some men and many women find their excitement in a game of bridge, where considerable sums of money may change hands in an hour or two.

A football match, a horse race, a foot race, wrestling, hi ‘rrds or even an election become tame to many imle>s they have a personal interest in the result. There is a chance of adding to the zest of the sj>ort by putting a few shillings on the likely winners, and going home with more money than when setting out. Why not? 1 have known of a girl of 15 winning a small sunt the first time she put iiKgtey on a game. She won’t stop at that. One person in a hundred may be richer at the end of the year’s betting, but 99 are poorer.

Nothing is sadder than to see a young life gradually deteriorating Little by little the ideal is lowered, and nothing undermines character more than indulgence in this gambling craze. Money and self become the objects to be lived for. Even if monev is won, there cannot be true happiness for the moral feelings become blunted Graduallv truth and horesty do not stand in the way of success. Frequently the gambler takes money t< make up for his losses in gambling, and disaster follows. Gambling kills the man’s power of finding satisfaction in things as they are. and bis pride in facing life as it is. Life is tremendous ly interesting as it is. Games are interesting as they are. To call in the covetous passion is a confession of mental and moral bankruptcy, and i> a slur on life itself.

! lie heart of the gambling problem is found in the fact ttiat it is unearned money that i* at issue. Nothing is given fur something. Gladstone said, "\\ hat can be the fun of getting other people’s money without earning it: Rev. John North says, “The gambling habit takes its toll of a man’s character It affects his efficiency. The lure of the unearned money creates in many a feverish excitement through which they lose grip. Such men are incapacitated for those problems and tasks with which they ought to grapple with their whole soul. A decline in interest is a decline in real efficiency and that is an inevitable consequence of the formation of the gambling spirit. The victims of the gambling mama are impatient of the slow, wholesome methods of industry and thrift. A man who finds himself possessed of a week’s wages through a lucky guess about horses is sure to find his estimate of values disturbed and the honest way of earning is depreciated in his eyes. Gambling, whether for large sums or small, blurs the margin between right and wrong, and unites in itself nearly every condition of folly and vice. That is where the harm is.

(»od is love. His teaching is, Love thy neighbour as thyself. worketb no evil to tus neighbour. Hew remote trom that is the gambler who grows rich on what he wins or others’ money. A* Monte Carlo the Suicides’ Corner revea's the hideous nature of this demoralizing vice. Misery and remorse follow the lowers, and the majority are lowers. The law of love is thought, consideration, self-sacrifice and service for others. May God help t s as members of the W.C.T.U. to hold fast o the law of love, which makes us our brother's keeper, our sister’s keeper, and may we steadfastly set our aces against this Goddishonour ug custom, and train our children 'hat honesty is the best policy. No sight in the world is finer than to see a young mart or a voting woman devclopnig his or her talents in a right direction, growing daily, as Jesus did, •it favour w'ith (iod and man. Gambling excludes ad that is lovely and ot good report from the character of its victims.