Is The Right-Wing Pro Gambling & Left-Wing Anti-Gambling?
It is very easy to talk about gambling in binary terms. Some will always say that it is bad, whilst others will remain forever convinced that it is good. The truth, as with most things, is somewhere in the middle.
There is no question that gambling can do great harm to some people. It is also difficult to argue that it has been a force for good in some instances. Whilst you might not win much money playing the lottery, some of what you do spend is put towards good causes. There is also the fact that people have won tens and even hundreds of millions of pounds playing it.
As a result, it isn’t always the case that people on one side of the political divide tend to think about gambling in one way and people on the other view it in an entirely different light. It isn’t actually so easy to split people according to their political opinions when it comes to gambling.
Even so, there is also an extent to which the right tend to be far more interested in capitalism than the left and there are few things as perfectly a distillation of capitalism as gambling. Similarly, the left are more interested in protecting people from harm than the right, with gambling harmful to some.
What Do We Mean By ‘The Right’ And ‘The Left’?
The first thing that it is important to outline is what, exactly, we mean when talking about ‘the right’ and ‘the left’. Obviously each country has its own definition, but we’re talking more specifically about what it means when it comes to British politics.
The political spectrum runs from left to right, or right to left depending on your point of view. The terms ‘left’ and ‘right’ were first used in relation to politics during the French Revolution, with those on the left being in favour of revolting and those on the right supporting them monarchy. In many ways, that dictates how we view politics in the modern world.
There is a sense that the left always favours change, whilst the right supports the status quo. Left-wing people tend to want a more equal society, believing that the government should play a big role in helping to achieve this. This includes higher taxes of the rich, welfare support for those that need it and control of business.
Left-wing people also tend to be more progressive in terms of things such as same-sex marriage, in addition to doing more to save the planet and stopping businesses from pillaging it in order to make more profit rather than help the most in need.
The right, on the other hand, tends to believe more in individual freedom and less interference from the government. They would like lower taxes and far less regulation on businesses, believing that competition in the private sector is more likely to lead to an increase in service quality.
Right-wing people are often more traditional in their values, which can often be seen in how they view the monarchy and what they think of issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage. Obviously all of this is speaking in broad terms and not everyone on either side of the political spectrum will always be in lock-step, but it does give you a sense of what is meant by ‘the left’ and ‘the right’.
Why The Right Tends To Be In Favour Of Gambling
Generally speaking, those on the right of the political divide tend to be in favour of gambling. There are numerous reasons for this, but they mostly tend to fit in with what we know about right-wing people and how they view businesses.
The right are far more capitalist than the left, believing in the ability of businesses to find their own place in the market without much, if any, interference from the government of the day. As a result of this, gambling is seen as something of a quintessential example of right-wing ideology, allowing companies to thrive if they can find a place in the market.
At the same time, right-wing people are much more likely to discourage interference in people’s lives than those on the left. They believe that people should be able to control their own impulses, meaning that if someone is suffering from a gambling problem then that is their own issue to solve.
Gambling in and of itself isn’t to blame for someone suffering from an addiction any more than alcohol or drugs are to blame for an alcoholic or a drug addict. The right-wing tends to be made up of capitalists, with gambling being about the most capitalist enterprise that there is.
Why Left Tends To Be Against It
For those on the left, gambling is a habit that lends itself to addiction and a lack of control. Left-wing people tend to believe that the government should help people to get out of their bad situations, whether that be offering housing to the homeless or asylum to those fleeing war and persecution.
As a result, left-wing people are often opposed to gambling for the precise reason that it can see people lose huge amounts of money. Even if that money is something that people can afford to lose, many will feel that it could be spent in a better way such as on welfare reform.
Whilst those that would fit into the bracket of being ‘communist’ or ‘Marxist’ or the like are more ‘far-left’ than just left, it is fair to say that those on the left side of the political spectrum are unlikely to be particular capitalist in their approach to life. Gambling is an activity that is all about money. It is about spending money to try to make more money, with some losing and some winning and that being the way of it.
That is, in simple terms, a neat summation of what capitalism is and how it works. It is difficult to ignore the idea that gambling is, therefore, not a particularly left-wing activity.
It Is Not Black & White
The most important thing to remember about gambling, as mentioned in the introduction, is that there is nothing black and white about it. Tony Blair was the Labour Prime Minister in power when sweeping gambling reforms were introduced to the United Kingdom by Gordon Brown (the then chancellor), legalising gambling as an activity across the board and introducing the licensing program.
In other words, a left-wing leader allowed gambling to flourish in the country, rather than doing more to keep a stranglehold on it. Equally, there are some extremely right-wing politicians that tend to be anti-gambling, such as Iain Duncan Smith.
Those on the left aren’t against gambling as an activity, but they are often against things that do other people harm. The truth about gambling is that it can often lead people to lose huge amounts of money and get themselves into difficult situations, meaning that they’re more likely to turn to the state for help. Whilst the left tends to be in favour of state help for those that need it, they would rather put the building blocks in place to stop people from needing help in the first place.
You will always find people on either side of any issue when it comes to politics, but if you’re going to deal in stereotypes then the left is always likely to be more anti-gambling than the right.
