IF THE world appears to have escaped relatively unscathed by social unrest in 2009, despite suffering the worst recession since the 1930s, it might just prove the lull before the storm. Despite a tentative global recovery, for many people around the world economic and social conditions will continue to deteriorate in 2010. An estimated 60m people worldwide will lose their jobs. Poverty rates will continue to rise, with 200m people at risk of joining the ranks of those living on less than $2 a day. But poverty alone does not spark unrest””exaggerated income inequalities, poor governance, lack of social provision and ethnic tensions are all elements of the brew that foments unrest.

Take a look at the chart and the comments if you have time.

John P. Hoffmann, a professor of sociology at Brigham Young University, examined the harm caused by gambling. Gambling has generally been placed in the category of victimless crimes, but he argued this terminology is not correct.

Problems such as gambling have substantial negative effects on marital relations and family functioning. Many people gamble with no apparent problems, Hoffmann admitted, but studies point to about 9% of gamblers having some risks, with another 1.5% classified as problem gamblers, and 0.9% as pathological gamblers.

The percentages might seem low, but they translate into substantial numbers — millions of people, in fact — when you consider the total population of the United States, he commented.

When it comes to family life Hoffmann observed that pathological gambling is associated with mental health problems and divorce. When gambling reaches problem levels, children are also often acutely affected. Not only does it influence the time parents spend at home, but children also suffer from a sense of diminished personal attachment to their parents and a loss of trust in them.

In my mind, one of the colossal failures of the church in the last generation. Read it all

States are aggressively expanding legalized gambling, eager to shore up battered revenue sources during the economic crisis and concerned that residents will cross state lines to gamble elsewhere if they don’t.

Gambling will expand in about a dozen states this year in an effort to generate an extra $2 billion in gambling taxes by 2010, a record-breaking increase if state projections are accurate.

“Politicians are pushed toward gambling when times get tough,” says William Thompson, a public administration professor at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. “If it’s gambling or a tax increase, the political choice is clear, and the public acquiesces.”

Very sad–since the poorest are most often the most hurt. Read it all.

By promoting the lottery on the one hand ”“ but liberalising gaming on the other ”“ the government has created its own, rather odd Camelot. Gambling has become an act of civic responsibility. It is something for all the family to enjoy. The great personal dream of citizens, one which children are encouraged to aspire, is win some impossible jackpot and never work again.

Through the cunning expedient of funding good causes, the government has silenced criticism from those who might otherwise have had qualms about its sleazy, back-scratching arrangement with the gaming industry. The national lottery is, in the words of Camelot, “serving the nation’s dreams”.

Last year, online gambling in the UK reached an all-time high, according to a recent ICM poll.

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Avarice and materialism have come in for strong criticism in the wake of the current economic crisis. Nevertheless, the effects of living in a de-Christianized society continue to make themselves felt.

Right in the middle of Lent, a big gambling company in Australia, Tabcorp, announced that they would be allowing betting on Good Friday in the country’s two most populous states, Victoria and New South Wales.

According to a March 17 article in the Melbourne-based newspaper, the Herald Sun, Tabcorp managing director Robert Nason said that the move is part of a push to allow race meetings in Australia on Good Friday.

While punters will not be able to bet on any local races this year, Tabcorp’s opening will allow them to wager on overseas events.

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Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne, Dr Philip Freier, today described Tabcorp’s proposed move to allow gambling on Good Friday as a “terrible desecration.”

“Good Friday is a day of profound significance for many Australians because it’s the day we remember Christ’s suffering and death on the cross.

“To turn Good Friday into yet another day with easy access to gambling would be abackward step.

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Update: There is a lot more heree on this as well.

According to recent surveys, serious proposals to seek revenue from new or expanded gambling operations are percolating this winter in at least a third of the states.

There’s just one problem: The most recent evidence says the promised riches won’t materialize. A few examples:

”¢ Kansas authorized state casinos in 2007 on the notion that $200 million could be raised each year for debt reduction, capital improvements and property tax relief. Nearly two years later, private casino developers have pulled out of three of the four proposed casino sites, fearing that there’s little money to be made in today’s down economy.

This isn’t the primary reason to oppose it, but it is yet another one. Read it all.

A tell-tale sign America’s chips are down: States are increasingly turning to gambling to plug budget holes.

Proposals to allow or expand slots or casinos are percolating in at least 14 states, tempting legislators and governors at a time when many must decide between cutting services and raising taxes.

Gambling has hard-core detractors in every state, but when the budget-balancing alternatives lawmakers must consider include reducing education funding or lifting sales taxes, resistance is easier to overcome, political analysts said.

“Who wouldn’t be interested if you’re a politician who needs to fund programs?” said Bo Bernhard, director of research at the International Gaming Institute at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas ”” a government-funded program.

It is simply a hidden tax on the poor and it is fool’s gold for policy makers. Makes the heart sad. Read it all.

Desperate poor people will be fleeced by new gambling laws aimed at recovering the Government’s own losses, says the Church’s Mission and Public Affairs Council (MPA).

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Second Consultation proposes to double the stakes and prizes for fruit machines and even larger increases for ‘crane-grab’ machines. Together with the Methodist Church, the Quakers, the Salvation Army and the Evangelical Alliance, the MPA has criticised the Government for giving in to industry pressure, instead of defending desperately poor people.

In the MPA’s response to the consultation, it said: “While it is tempting to justify socially harmful policies by pointing to their economic benefits, it is wrong that people who are liable to engage in problem gambling should be made to pay the price of protecting businesses from financial pressures.”

An insider at the department confirmed that after the first consultation on the gambling regulations “the majority of respondents were from the gambling industry.”

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Gambling, as a key solution to our economic woes might not be as attractive as the pundits are making it seems. The Church, as well as all other civic groups, needs to remain resolute that the gaining of money at all cost is not in the best interest of our county and citizenry.

Money is a moral, material and spiritual issue. Emphasis on any one or two of these issues will lead to a breakdown in the moral and spiritual fabric of the society. There is evidence that the decay is evident elsewhere so there is no need for us to duplicate the problems and failure of others.

The fact that casino and other forms of gambling have been accepted as government policy does not mean the Church will be silent. On the contrary, the Church will continue to echo the words of the council: “The principle involved in gambling and the attitude to life which it inculcates are wrong. It is a selfish something-for-nothing attitude, and it involves a basic misuse of money and personnel.” Sounds familiar in the present climate.

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A Sydney Anglican minister plans to be a Christian voice at a community forum on gambling today.

St Barnabas’, Fairfield assistant minister Steve Frederick has been invited to speak at today’s South West Sydney Problem Gambling Summit.

“This is a fantastic opportunity to offer a Christian voice on an issue of such importance for the south west of Sydney,” Mr Frederick says.

Mr Frederick was invited to speak at the summit after writing an email of encouragement to a member of Fairfield Council who came under fire from the rest of the council for an opinion piece he’d written in the local paper.

“In the article Councillor Thang Ngo expressed concern about the disproportionately high number of pokies in Fairfield and the staggeringly high proportion of disposable income that residents of the area spend on them,” Mr Frederick says.

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Colleges concerned about the addictive potential of gambling face an uphill battle against its glamorized image. Think ESPN’s all-out coverage of poker tournaments or the parade of movies: Now it’s “21,” about six students beating the house in Vegas; 10 years ago, the popular film “Rounders” featured Matt Damon as a law student and high-stakes poker player.

Whether it’s in dorm rooms or at a “casino night” fundraiser, gambling pervades college campuses. And more schools are starting to take notice of the problems it can spawn.

In Missouri, for example, a coalition of 12 schools is working hard to reach out to students about gambling. They’re starting to address betting through orientations and health surveys. They’re training financial-aid officers to ask about gambling debts if a student requests an emergency loan. And earlier this month, they promoted an educational website (Keeping the Score) with giveaways during National Problem Gambling Awareness Week.

Silence is still too often the response to the surge of gambling on campus, prevention advocates say, but they see hopeful signs of change in nascent efforts like these around the country.

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Every major religious advocacy group has united in opposition — Catholic and Protestant, black and white, conservatives who view gambling as a destructive personal sin and liberals who see an industry that preys on the poor.

Despite religious groups’ disagreements on other issues in Frankfort, “this is the one thing that seems to galvanize everyone,” said Hershael York, a Frankfort pastor and past president of the Kentucky Baptist Convention. “That ought to say something to the political world.”

Good for them. Read it all.