A Galloping Controversy: Horses for Crosses

Orville Taylor, Contributor

Horses have been running away with fool-fool Jamaicans' money since the early days of racing at Knutsford Park (now New Kingston) in 1905. Thanks to Rebecca Tortello, we know that racing for a purse commenced around 1816 at Race Course, now National Heroes' Park, with an impressive £100. But when 'Track' opened at Caymanas in 1959, a new wave of fans and addicts followed.

Over the years, I have enjoyed the sport because of the inherent pleasure in watching all types of racing. Thus, great horses, such as Reprieve, Hillsdown, Papacito, Royal Dad, Dr Wright's eunuch, Bucephalus, Milligram and Alsafra, were a joy to watch, especially since I did not bet on them. Pioneer trainers such as Eileen Cliggott and A.E. Billy Williams and jockeys Arthur Jones, Richard Depass, José Bravo, George Hosang, 'Fanna' Griffiths, 'Bimbo' Rodriguez and Winston Ellis are legends. And few remember that Azel Cowie blazed the trail as a female jockey long before Georgina Sergeon.

However, the fun ends when one loses his already meagre income and horses appear to grin, turn and raise their tails and say 'neigh' to your request to get your money back. The truth is, if the poor turfites and punters had listened to their wives and babymothers, and either put the money in credit unions or invested it in the tertiary education of their children, they would have been 'bettor' off. More than 75 per cent of all horse gamblers lose far more than they ever win. That is how gambling succeeds.

OK, since I am in the Church's firing line, let me argue that the money would be also well spent on the poor and needy, and a little bit of tithes and offering for pastor to administer the affairs of the church and put gas in his 2002 Honda.

With all due disrespect to the Lotto companies and the owners of gaming lounges and casinos, gambling is 'bad' business. The banker always draws 'less', which in simple terms is the portion of the pot which the person running the gambling racket gets. Gambling is like a Ponzi scheme, with the exception that a minuscule minority wins. In its simplest form, it is not stealing from Peter to pay Paul; it is stealing from Peter, Paul, John, Stephen, Andrew, James and Jesus, to give Judas a little and Pilate and Caesar the bag.

'To gamble is to lose'

John T. Rupley, the only teacher who poured any mathematical sense in this oddly shaped cranium, taught us in my Catholic high school, "Gentlemen! To gamble is to lose." Since 'Daddy Rups' knew maths far more than any theologian knew the Bible, we took this as gospel, although some of my best friends, to date, rolled dice, shuffled cards and flipped coins, while shouting 'ackee or coata' (head or tails). Oftentimes the 'gamblings' would be broken up by a Jesuit priest who sneaked up on the unsuspecting boys and mischievously placed his own bet just before they had cardiac arrest, stroke or sudden onset diarrhoea.

The priests taught us that it was wrong to gamble, and whether or not this miscreant, who constantly questioned them on matters of faith, believed it, it was an offence for which one could be caned or expelled. Indeed, I needed no further convincing, because Elder Taylor, who read his Bible to tatters and was suspected of having a secret line to Jesus himself, warned me against this sin. With words which echo in my brain up to tomorrow, he stated lucidly, "Only fools and thieves gamble." Huh? Fools gamble to lose and thieves seek what they do not earn by their labour.

Nonetheless, despite the fact that I almost got expelled from school for questioning some Catholic teachings and, thus, provoked the Church - a characteristic which I apparently haven't outgrown - I had to see for myself which part of the Bible spoke specifically against gambling. To my consternation, it is the same book and verse which address race-car driving. Yeah, right! No biblical verse, chapter or book addresses gambling, and interestingly, it is the Catholic Church, which keeps its little bingos and fun games, that is most honest in this regard. The Catechism of the Catholic Church instructs: "Games of chance ... or wagering are not in themselves contrary to justice. They become morally unacceptable when they deprive someone of what is necessary to provide for his needs and those of others ... . Gambling risks becoming an enslavement." Thus, from this perspective, gambling, in itself, is not a sin.

Other denominations stretch their interpretation of the silent Bible, which only mentions gambling when the Roman soldiers chose to raffle Jesus' garment after they murdered him. Mark 15:24 reports, "And they crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take."

Less-honest preachers or those who don't bother to use their brain, but choose to leave it intact for science, ignore the truth about Jesus' invasion of the temple and casting out the vendors as if he were a former Jamaican mayor. Some insert their own facts that he expelled gamblers. That happened at my school, not in John 2:13-16, where "he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables ... ."

gambling unchristian

Notwithstanding the feeble biblical foundation upon which most churches act, the consensus among our denominations is that gambling is sinful and, therefore, stand fast against Government and any institution of Babylon which supports, implements or suggests it as a means to an end. And I agree with the Church that gambling is unchristian, and being the moral compass of society it should oppose any strategy to widen the scope of gambling which exists here. At the same time, it should constantly remind us that the present diet of Lotto, Cash Pot, casinos, gaming, and Wednesday and Saturday racing is unholy. Period.

However, when the argument is that they object to Sunday racing because it is a day of worship, it shows just how selfish, myopic and insensitive some leaders are. For more than a century Seventh-day Adventists and other Sabbath worshippers have had to endure the ignominy of this 'sinful' activity on their holiest day. And somehow, against all odds, they have become the Christian denomination with the largest membership, around 270,000, or one-tenth of the population. Clearly they are doing something very right, and the Sunday celebrants, who have the privileged majority day left to them, have failed to spark.

Nonetheless, if Caesar wants to increase gambling as he seeks to plug the chasm in the Budget, he has to defy the Church, as the State often has to. And while doing so, it can give additional status to the strip clubs, which many a 'Christian' politician faithfully 'freakwent'. It is irrefutable that horse racing employs thousands of grooms, suppliers of food, jockeys, off-track workers and others. Furthermore, there are some breeders who sell horses into the industry as well as to other Caribbean islands.

However, unless they are seriously importing foreign exchange, it is simply circulating money within the economy, which other real productive industries bring in. Yet, it is ludicrous to approve Sunday racing without changing the relevant laws to allow off-tracks to open on Sunday. After all, the Shops and Offices Law, which bans Sunday openings, is slavishly and religiously obeyed by the supermarkets, which set the example.

Gambling can be big money for a Government, but to simply wait for 'banker to draw less' and then take your 17.5 per cent GCT and 25 per cent income tax is bankrupt fiscal governance and uncreative financing. The unfortunate fact is that, as with the myths about trickle-down economics, it is only the 'big man' who will benefit from increased gambling, unless persons from outside the Jamaican economy bring in their currency with strange-looking dead people to spend here.

Atlantic City in New Jersey has a population of around 40,000. But casinos, sucking money mostly from the 33 million visitors, have, since 1975, pumped US$7 billion into the city's economy while creating some 55,000 jobs.

The love of money is the root of all evil, and Government must romance and mate with it in order to pay for our development. Let's see if a Christian-led government will appoint a churchman to chair the new betting boards.

Dr Orville Taylor is senior lecturer in sociology at the UWI and a radio talk-show host. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and tayloronblackline@hotmail.com.