Owzat wrote:Sabre wrote:Compulsive gambling makes a lot of people wasting money, even wasting money they don't have.
I think the government should take a lot of blame with their policies towards the three issues below
SMOKING/DRINKING - you see adverts about quitting, the health risks involved in smoking and drinking and so on. But the government won't ban it because of the tax on it, they are happy to compromise their ethics over ££££
GAMBLING - it is as adictive as smoking or drinking, but the government doesn't seem to worry people can rack up big debts - and it doesn't take long to rack them up. It's knowing when to stop, and when you've lost say £500 you want to win it back and then you want to win back your £2.5k and then your £50k and then finally you are £700k in debt.
PREMIUM PHONE LINES - these should be banned, they provide no worthwhile service and are just a rip off. You see the standard "texts cost £1m plus your standard provider tariff" on various adds, I caught a bit of "Wordplay" yesterday and the answer was so obviously "Fiddler on the roof", but they keep the lines open to get lots of people to ring in and be robbed of their money. There have been so many "scandals" with competitions recently, and they are not much better than gambling in all honesty, maybe more difficult to rack up big debts, but still a form of gambling, that I'm surprised they don't have a severe clampdown on it. And they must rake in millions when cr ap like "big bruvva" comes on, I seem to recall hearing or reading a few years ago, that they pull in something like £200k a week from voting.
All the above are a mug's game, you could say people are free to choose to do what they like, but the only winners in the above three are the people taking your money and most can affect your wellbeing/health. I don't advocate a clampdown on people's choices, as much choice as we have, but you have to question the motivation of the government in keeping some legal and not clamping down on all of them. Clearly people aren't bright enough to avoid most/all of the above, but the government isn't too bothered if people drink themselves or smoke themselves to death, or gamble themselves into poverty, as long as they get their taxes.
oh grow up.
we are adults, if we wanna smoke, drink and gamble... wewill!!!
you want a nanny state where the government lets you do whatever you want???
feck!
worth a try
