Ordinary Nothing

I saw this little article in today’s paper announcing that the
department of tourism declared its intent to build an hippodrome in the
Negev, to be used for horse racing and bets. They expect it to be a centre of
tourism, and to cause other tourist attractions to be built in the same
area. The minister of tourism is quoted as saying that "The state would
benefit from the bets that will take place in the hippodrome, and the
Negev will enjoy the creation of many labour sources".

First, I’m really not so sure about the merit of the idea. Sure, there
are horses in Israel. But we’re pretty far from being well known as the
equestrian capitol of the world. So people who are seriously into
horse races won’t come, due to it being too amateurish. And are people
who are just enthusiasts, or want to experience a race for the first
time, really expected to come to Israel of all places? This makes very
little sense to me.

Unless we expect serious horse breeders and racers to bring their own
horses here. A lofty ambition. Too much so, I think, considering
freight for a race horse to Israel would probably cost a lot more than
inside Europe or the US. They won’t bring them until we get a good
reputation, and we won’t ever get that good reputation without people
bringing them.

All of which doesn’t matter much, because the way I see it, and the way
I can’t believe my esteemed minister of tourism doesn’t see it, the point
is to allow gambling. Yes, bets on horse races are gambling.

So how come this goes on so quietly? There were discussions once about
opening approved casinos in Israel. It suffered from many loud
objections, citing things like increased crime rate, or people losing
too much of their money. It reached such a state that on the last
election we had a potential party running that was only about making
gambling legal (which it now isn’t), and they didn’t get enough votes
to enter the Knesset.

So how come betting on card games is illegal and much contended, but
opening a hippodrome and betting on horse races doesn’t raise any
hackles? This is the exact same thing – gambling. Or am I missing something?

April 7th, 2005 at 21:46 EET | Categories: Culture, Legal | Track comments. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.