It appears to me, that on every road, in every village, there is an opportunity to gamble. What is the fascination with gambling in this country? If its not the online casinos its bingo and if its not the bingo halls its the scratch cards and if its not the scratch cards its the betting shops – it seems impossible to avoid!
I went to a wedding in a village and was left open mouthed at the small elderly man with hundreds of scratch cards hanging off his body who entered the hall and proceeded to sell gambling cards to the guests! Is this normal over here? I mean the guests seem pretty delighted at the given opportunity to have a quick gamble!
The casinos are constantly in the news but there must be loop holes that the owners of these establishments wiggle into to remain open. The bookies seems to be buzzing constantly. I mean you can bet on anything, from sports to the weather to celebrity events. If you dont want to spend money on ‘real’ things, then theres virtual football, virtual dog racing and virtual everything else!
Bingo is another obsession -I’ve seen people completely cover their table with playing slips, around €40 a go! I’m astonished at how much money is spent in these places. There was a power cut in my area a couple of weeks ago, a complete black out – do you think the bingo hall came to a stand-still? No, they were in there huddled round candles STILL playing! It’s good to see in the event of a disaster most Cypriots will be found in betting halls or bookies oblivious to anything going on around them!
Any reason why you guys think betting is so huge here, please enlighten me. Is it harmless or harmful? I’ve seen a woman going into an on-0line casino place with her 3 year old daughter in tow. She sits there and gambles while her daughter sits there watching – I wonder what she’ll be doing when shes 16 then? Putting her pocket money on red by the looks of things!
