Wanna bet?

"The gambling known as business looks with austere disfavour upon the business known as gambling."

—      Ambrose Bierce

So the race that stops the nation, the Melbourne Cup, is on today.  I don’t really get into it, but I don’t begrudge those that do.  This two mile, or 3200 metre race, held on the first Tuesday in November, has been held since 1861.  Although a public holiday in Victoria only, it seems to make the rest of the country grind to a near halt, with business’s all over stopping to watch the race. 

According to the ABS, in 2004-5, the net takings from gambling were $15.5 billion, with just over half of that coming from poker machines.  Over 76 thousand people were employed in the provision of gambling services but I don’t think that counts people who make hats.

The International Monetary Fund estimated that large U.S. and European banks lost more than $1 trillion on toxic assets and from bad loans from January 2007 to September 2009. These losses are expected to top $2.8 trillion from 2007-10. U.S. banks losses were forecast to hit $1 trillion and European bank losses will reach $1.6 trillion.

I guess for me, the perils of gambling are certainly there, but there is a real subjectivity about what we call gambling.   I would estimate more people have lost their house in the USA this past few years from banking foreclosures etc, far more than ‘gambling’.    Anyway, for me, I’ll wait till they are riding something a bit more interesting than horses.  (Pictures courtesty of Freakingnews.com)