It is a long-proven truth that people anywhere in the world tend to gamble a lot more than usual when the economy is in the doldrums. So it is safe to assume that a frantic international gambling extravaganza is on at present as the big economies try to find a way out of the mess left by their insatiable bankers and so-called financial managers who have been ruling the roost since the hateful Reagan-Thatcher tandem of the Eighties.

The small economies, including our minuscule one, now simply have to play ball, hoping and praying the terrible tsunami does not eventually overwhelm them, feeble and defenceless, as they no doubt are. However, while governments and central banks rightly insist on achieving some sanity at last and stopping – once and for all – the high-risk gambling undertaken by the big banks and global financial institutions with other people’s money, the man in the street finds it increasingly difficult to come to terms with the new realities and quickly opts for the short-term gains temptingly offered by legal and illegal gambling.

The Maltese economy has never been strong enough to curtail the gambling sensation. From grandma’s weekly lotto and the Super Five draw to casino free-lunch-plus-gambling opportunities and similar Internet obsessions, the number of citizens falling prey to this habit continues to grow at a very worrying rate. People with families who cannot cope with the water and electricity rates as well as other taxes, all too willingly gamble away what’s left of their wages, only to find themselves in deeper waters and, not surprisingly, struggling to survive.

I have always believed gambling is just plain theft by mutual consent. People who can afford to gamble don’t need money, and those who need money can’t afford to gamble. In fact, I would say never bet on a sure thing unless you can afford to lose. Mark Twain once rightly stated there are two times in a man’s life when he should not speculate: when he can’t afford it, and when he can.

The Parliamentary Social Affairs Committee recently expressed its preoccupation with the growing number of gambling outlets sprouting all over the island. With the commendable exception of Zejtun’s civic authorities, who vociferously protested against the granting of a licence to a new gambling shop in their midst, the rest have simply stood and watched the spread of what we now know are, mostly, illicit gambling places that are causing havoc and grief in Maltese families.

The committee’s recent report referred to several desperate cases; sad, human accounts that shock one into realising the depth and gravity of the problem: a widow finding no money left to pay for her deceased husband’s funeral, a single mother being literally pushed out of a gambling outlet by her 15-year-old daughter, university students selling their new cars to pay newer debts and other sorry stories. Are we turning into a nation of gamblers, or have we always been such so?

Sadly, the committee seemed, to me, much more preoccupied with the fact that more illegal gambling shops have been opening, rather than with declaring a moral and total resistance to the national scourge of gambling itself. Talking tough will not solve the problem. While making some sense, its recommendations fall short of clearing the field for a proper attack on this major affliction. It is certainly not enough to state that “not all those who have set up shop” in the gambling business will eventually get a licence.

Gambling is like diving into an empty swimming pool. The chances that you’ll hit bottom are about the same and the safest bet is always the one you didn’t make.

The committee’s report also does not seem to have caused the social tremors it should have. I guess people who are secretly gambling away all or part of their incomes cannot be expected to bother about the fact that the same predicament is haunting the rest of their friends and neighbours.

I have intentionally scanned the popular blogs to see what reactions there were to two particular stories: the recent censorship fiasco concerning the banned stage production of Stitching and the highly-disturbing report from the Parliamentary Social Affairs Committee. The difference in the degree of both participation and vehemence is as palpable as it is, I dare say, predictable.

While bloggers seemed willing to congregate in their hundreds to discuss the issue of the mediaeval tinkering with people’s right to decide for themselves what to read and what to watch on stage in this liberal, self-respecting early part of the 21st century, the blogging on the gambling story was neither as hot nor as numerically concentrated. We certainly have our priorities wrong as a nation.

I would have expected the Church, political parties, NGOs, local councils, the media and sundry other lay organisations to come out en masse to express their shock and disbelief at the perturbing spread of gambling outlets on the island. Instead there was only a pathetic electronic whimper.

There is no doubt that these new gambling places are threatening a lot more jobs than they are actually creating, which is enough reason – a veritable hue and cry – for the authorities to take drastic action against this time-honoured phenomenon. Or is that too much to expect while another form of gambling with our futures goes on inside the EU and other international fora?