Israeli lawmakers propose state-owned casino
Life may already seem like a daily gamble to many ordinary Israelis, caught in the middle of a violent Palestinian uprising since September.
But a group of lawmakers suggested gambling of another sort on June 5 when they made a controversial proposal to build a government-owned casino.
Two dozen members of Israel’s parliament, representing a broad cross-section of ideologies, said Israel should end its national ban on games of chance and allow national lottery officials to operate a casino.
The bill acknowledges that roulette wheels and slot machines lure thousands of Israelis – and millions of shekels - to foreign casinos every year, including one in the Palestinian territories.
But the oft-discussed issue raises tensions between secular Jews and religious Jews who oppose legalized gambling.
Yossi Katz, the bill’s sponsor, said the government cannot ignore the fact that 50 percent of Israelis gamble.
They cram casino ships that leave the Israeli Red Sea resort of Eilat for international waters.
Before the violence erupted, up to 3,000 Israelis a day used to pack a lucrative casino in the Palestinian West Bank city of Jericho, near the shores of the Dead Sea.
Some even risked the trip after the bloodshed began in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, cramming into car boots to cross the border to the West Bank undetected.
“I am in principle opposed to gambling,” Katz, a Labor Party member, told Israel Radio. “It can have a lot of negative impact and people who are addicted can really lose all their possessions at the roll of dice.”
Katz said the debate would not take place for at least two weeks. After a preliminary vote, the bill would have to pass three more readings to become law.
The ultra-Orthodox National Religious Party said it opposed opening a legal casino because it would attract other vices.
“I have not found a casino alongside which there were not phenomena of protection and blackmail and other kinds of things, like drugs,” said Shaul Yahalom, a member of a party championing Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza.
“If 20 percent of Israeli teenagers use drugs, should it be legalized?” he asked.
But unlike privately owned casinos, Katz said the government would limit individual losses and distribute the profit to needy Israelis and other social projects.
A private contractor would operate the casinos under the supervision of the national lottery and the Finance Ministry.
“The goal of this is not to create a private casino but to open a casino under state supervision… in order to use the profits for clear social goals,” Katz said. He dismissed claims that casinos breed a myriad social ills.
Yahalom pledged to fight legalized gambling, saying the scheme would destroy the Israeli work ethic.
“It is not a question of whether or not there are illegal casinos and Israelis go abroad to gamble,” Yahalom said. “It is simply the way you want to educate your people and what kind of culture you want.”
(Reuters)
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