DEAR Editor,-
For two years since the KZN Gambling Board stopped a group of pensioners playing social bingo in Margate, I have been in constant contact with a senior executive of the board and, in fact, attended a meeting with him and his legal colleague where they went into great detail to tell us we were committing a crime and threatening us with arrest.
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The Gambling Board’s advert in the Herald last week spells out what gambling means – money ‘staked on the unknown result of a future event’ – again with the threat of criminal prosecution.
This must technically include, of course, paying an entrance fee into a competition where the chances are that you may lose ‘all or a portion of the money’ staked. Thus playing in a golf, bowls, tennis, (any sport) competition, is committing a crime.
Similarly, raffles, lucky draws, quizzes and pub games, held by schools, churches, sports clubs, leagues (like darts, snooker, poker, bridge and other card games) for trophies, cash, any prize with any commercial value or for fund-raising, are in fact criminal acts.
So far, the Gambling Board has focused solely on the ‘social bingo criminals’. Why? When there are so many other criminals playing games?
I believe it is to protect casino-type commercial bingo, where old folk are enticed to play slot machines. The board’s revenue comes from taxes on winnings.
In vain I have tried to point out that lonely pensioners all over the world play social bingo, partly because commercial bingo is at least five times more expensive and, also, because older people don’t like having to drive long (expensive) distances to the nearest casino.
They prefer to play in local venues where they feel safe with friends and know there is no chance of their vulnerability being compromised. It is criminal to play a game of bingo in your own home with your family. In my opinion, the board is the criminal – not the poor old pensioners.
Are there no younger professional people in the community who could assist us in negotiating with the board for a modification to the new act, and thus getting back the social bingo we older folk have been playing so happily for decades? Please.
ELAINE DUNCAN
Ramsgate Retirement Village
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