I’m hardly one to make light of problem gambling, but this story is ridiculous. From Ananova:
Russian actors are being paid to pretend to be destitute beggars in a government scheme to discourage people from gambling.
They will tell passers-by how they were once rich executives who lost everything after becoming addicted to gambling.
Vladimir Platonov from Moscow city council said the plan would see the actors sent to stand outside casinos dressed as beggars.
The move comes as fears grow that the city could be overrun with gambling addicts after a recent ruling by the Moscow Supreme court overturned a law that casinos could only be built outside the city.
Under the scheme, which Moscow city officials claim is a world-first, actors will be selected at a special casting in front of a city council committee.
It is unclear how much the actors will be paid but it is thought they will be given at least the average monthly wage in Russia of £200 to work five evenings a week.
Some will even be given an instrument, such as an accordion, to turn the story into a sorrowful lament.
There’s a range of things governments can do about problem gambling. They can ignore the problem. They can require casinos to post problem gambling helplines in their ads. They can mandate that casinos fund problem gambling programs. They can force casinos to institute “cooling off” periods by setting limits on playing time. Or they can just not legalize and regulate gaming industries.
Some of these things are of dubious constitutionality, and many would intrude on what most Americans would regard as their right to privacy. But they are far more sensible than the Moscow Plan, if it is more than the Russian equivalent of a bogus April Fool’s story (the one official quoted, Vladimir Platonov, apparently really is on the Moscow duma, but I have no other verification).
I just can’t imagine how someone could propose this with a straight face. I’m no problem gambling expert, but I’m reasonably confident that if we held a symposium of experts, public officials, and the general public and kept them pent up for 40 days and 40 nights, they’d never come up with anything this whacked out.
Hiring actors to protray gambling addicts? Lamenting the scourge of gambling while playing the accordian? If this happens, someone’s got to upload video.
Of course, you could just conduct a study of problem gambling prevalence, do outreach with at-risk groups, and attempt to raise awareness of available resources. But that isn’t nearly as effective as having extras play singing hobos, I’m sure.