Refering to the Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, the word culture was given various definitions but what interest me was those meanings that links to the human society. One definition means advanced development of the human powers; development of the body, mind and spirit by training and experience while another says it is the evidence of intellectual development (of arts, science and etc) in human society.
The meaning which most people generally equated on the word culture are stated as "all the arts, beliefs, social institutions etc, characteristics of a community, race, etc in the said dictionary while the Websters New World Dictionary defined it as "the ideas, customs, skills, arts, etc. of a people or group, that are transferred, communicated, or passed along, as in succeeding generations.
Basing on the above meaning, the question to be asked now is whether gambling can be considered a culture and are the Chinese or even non-Muslims accepts the notion that gambling is part of their culture?
Our attention are drawn to the ongoing debates on the necessity of the government to issue a licence to a private company to enable sports betting to be legally available to members of the public. One of the usual arguing point for those that supports sports betting is that it will generate income to the government in the form of taxation from sports gambling. It was further argued by those for the legalisation of sports gambling is that even without legalising it, billions of ringgit are transacted in illegal sports betting by local and overseas syndicates. So the point is, if you can't beat them, joins them!
Surely with the legalisation of sports betting it will make some selected few to be filthy and unashamedly extra millions richer by the click of the mouse. It also can turn one into a generous multi million ringgit philanthropist by channelling the profit for the a purpose built foundation which the public have not heard of until recently! Maybe a slice of the profit can be channelled to build a state of the art public day care centre for the old folks ( especially those who lost their hard earned life savings to gambling) in the city centre. The owner of the sports gambling company do not have to look far for a strategic piece of land for the centre as it is just a stone throw away. They can see it clearly from their office - the century old former Pudu Jail which is destined to be demolished and buried in history in the name of "development".
Anyway, going back to the word culture, there are proponents and supporters of legal sports betting who said that while Muslims do not gamble, the government cannot denied the right of the non-Muslims to gamble as gambling is part of the Chinese culture. How does gambling becomes part of the Chinese culture? Does it means anyone who gambles are Chinese? What about those whites in Europe and US who has been involved in sports betting for years? Are they strongly influenced by the Chinese culture? Mind you, those bookies who provides sports bettings in football and boxing has been doing that long before any Asians got dragged into these multi billions industry.
It was said there is no reason for Muslims to object to the issuing of the sports betting licence as it does not involved them. Does it imply that all non-Muslims including the Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and so on has valid reasons to support the government's intention to issue the sports betting licence because it is part of their culture? Are they saying gambling is allowed in the religions of non-Muslims?
Maybe sooner or later these sports betting proponents will be proven right that gambling is part of the Chinese and non-Muslims culture because the Chinese and non-Muslims has been sportingly silent on this issue. If this claims are not strongly rebutted by the non-Muslims on the question of whether gambling is part of their customs and characteristics that are passed along from generations to generations, in no time it will be assumed and taken as an accepted fact that, other than the Muslims, everyone is a sporting gambler since it is part of their culture. - Loka
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