What Price the Lottery and Who Pays For It?

What Price The Lottery And Who Pays For It?
By Keith Tondeur
Monarch. 160 pages. £6.99
ISBN 1 85424 349 7

Just as we could take abortion as not only a sad fact but also a metaphor which illustrates the spirit of the age, so we can with the National Lottery. It has highlighted the greed, the selfishness and desire to escape in a society of gamblers.
Keith Tondeur looks at the subtleties of the way gambling is marketed as a virtue. There is the sop to the conscience under the guise of giving to a good cause. But it is, in fact, the enticing of 90% of the population into a bad bet buttressed by the emotional pressure that 'it could be you'. It is, as the book tells us, a tax on despair and government taxing by the back door.
Why was the control of this lottery taken out of the hands of the Home Office and switched to the National Heritage to become the most successful lottery on earth? Why were the usual rules for gambling changed for this particular project? Read the book!
Here are the stories of the winners and the losers. Yes, there are some sensible winners, but, of course, there are those who have been ruined by hitting the jackpot. In this well-researched book we have those who are involved in the organisation. We have views from a diverse range of people and institutions. Certain social trends are traced. Clear guidance is given to the Christian, although some may feel it is not hard-hitting enough. But, being a realist and looking at 'an institution that can't be uninvented', the author ends up with recommendations for the future of the lottery.
But we cry: 'William Wilberforce, where are you?' The answer comes back: 'It could be you!'

What Price the Lottery and Who Pays For It?

Geoff King