I had clearly pointed out the risk to public morality of privatising the hitherto public lotto without taking precautions not to expose the general public, with an inherent Mediterranean cultural inclination for gambling, to excessive temptation to spend a disproportionate part of disposal income on such human frivolities.

Writing in this newspaper on 4 November 2001 I had asked:

“What precautions are being taken to ensure that we do not end up with a gaming terminal on every street corner augmenting gaming and gambling far beyond the broad economic growth rate? Has the government calculated the social cost that a sudden surge in gaming would cause through forced recourse to usury and other criminal practices? Has anyone made any calculation of the economic costs of such sudden surge in gaming as expenditure gets shifted from other consumption with much more economically effective multiplier effect?”

Now we seem to have landed exactly where I had feared we would land. Ask anybody around you and he or she probably have first hand experience of people who hardly earn enough to keep body and soul together, who are scrounging to somehow live, in the false hope of hitting the big super five jackpot.

We spend a handful to protect our kids from vices such as drug and alcohol abuse. Our moral authorities, the Church included, do sterling work to educate the exposed sectors about the stark consequences of experimenting with core drugs and/or their modern synthetic derivatives. Admirable people, to whom we shall remain eternally in debt, like those at Caritas, Appogg and similar organisations, who dedicate their lives to redeem and rehabilitate those fragile among us who give in to temptation and seek refuge in drugs or alcohol.

Even the State and the public sector spend a handful in supporting these NGOs through budgetary allocations, sponsorships or outright donations and in running a centre to give controlled drugs, or methadone alternatives to those undergoing a rehabilitation programme that involves controlled withdrawal.

It is therefore quite paradoxical that gambling is not only legalised in controlled environments like Casinos, but that we have are giving it full exposure in practically every street of every town and village. We must be working on the false assumption that exposure to gambling is morally less damaging then exposure to drugs or alcohol.

I am surprised that Church authorities, who regularly find an opportunity to warn us of the great moral pain that would befall this country if we were ever start to consider giving up the privilege of being one of the only two countries in the world that outlaws divorce, has not expressed any reservation about the great destruction to family values being incurred by the undue exposure to gambling (gaming if you wish to be more polite) by exaggerated jackpot prizes, which exploit human weakness to resist being drawn the quick rich route that inevitably leads to financial and moral devastation.

Even our commercial community is being severely hit as retailers (and eventually wholesalers, importers or manufacturers further up the delivery chain) complain that when the Super Five prize reaches astronomical jackpot proportions, a significant portion of the disposable income normally spent on ordinary consumption, is spent on frivolous gambling. A butcher confided to me that sale of meat in a Super Five jackpot week falls dramatically as presumably the reduced disposable income following the spend on the get rich quick illusion, forces housewife to feed their families pasta with butter or hobz biz-zejt.

I think it is time for the authorities to take a fresh hard look at the situation before more damage is caused to family values which ultimately hurts society at large. As a simple first step. the authorities should direct that the jackpot should once more be subject to a reasonable maximum figure and that any excess is shared by allocating 50 per cent for future prizes in subsequent weeks and 50 per cent donated to recognised NGOs who carry out valuable social work on a non-profit basis.

Secondly, the authorities need to control the spread of gambling/gaming channels to avoid seeing gaming machines in coffee shops or other large retailers, which should be kept clear of gambling terminals. Gambling terminals should only be allowed in recognised offices like lotto offices where the gambler goes there purposely to gamble. Gambling should not be mixed with anything else imaginable.

Thirdly, gambling of sums beyond a certain limit should be subjected to more formal procedures. In the financial services sector we are expected to keep documentary evidence of identity with anyone we do business with, even in the most ordinary course of business. We are also expected to have a long nose to smell out and not handle any money that could have been sourced from criminal activities. How can it be that people authorised to accept lotto/super five stakes are not obliged to keep identity records of people staking above a certain limit, let alone satisfying themselves of the clean source of the funds being staked?

As this is my last contribution before Christmas may I wish my readers a very happy and peaceful Christmas with a bit of advice to stake on Super Five no more than is necessary, just to have the tip of a finger in the pot and to save some money for donating to more worthy causes like L-Istrina and especially RTK’s campaign for Dar tal-Providenza being held between 30 December and 1 January. Certainly no cause could be more worthy than id-Dar tal-Providenza and its little angels.

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