On Gambling, Goa, And The Taliban

This is the sort of news we have grown quite accustomed to reading:

"Gambling den raided by police, 40 held"

And it brings to mind the bullshit the old textbooks of "development economics" contain: they say that the people of India are "risk averse," hence unsuited to Capitalism. In such risk averse and backward societies, it is claimed, The State must play a big role in business.

I would say that if this contention is true – that the people are indeed risk averse – gambling should be encouraged, not outlawed.

Of course, in reality, the people of India are great gamblers. There is matka and satta everywhere in India. There is "teer" in the tribal areas of the North-East: that is, keen gamblers exist even in our tribal societies. In north India, during the run up to Diwali, everyone gambles, for it held that the goddess of wealth, Lakshmi, favours those who take risks with their money. Unfortunately, our The State always plays spoilsport – as in this current instance.

Sitting in Goa, the one place in India where Liberty rules, I find all this vastly amusing. When you wait for your luggage at Goa's Dabolim airport, you find that the conveyor belt is done up like a casino table. The luggage conveyor at this airport is, in fact, an advertisement for a local casino. And casinos are big business here. They are run by legitimate businessmen, unlike in the case above, where the "gambling den was being run by notorious anti-social elements of the town." This is the choice we have before us. If gambling is encouraged, businessmen are encouraged; if gambling is illegal, anti-socials and criminals take over.

This time, on our way home from the airport, we stopped at Margao to buy provisions. As I parked the car in a narrow gully I noticed a little kiosk around which people had gathered. Further investigations revealed the kiosk to be a matka outlet, where people were placing 10 rupee bets for the chance of winning 90 rupees. There were even some women placing bets.

This is Goa: there are casinos for the rich; there are casinos for the poor. The rest of India can either go the way of Goa, following the "Goa Model of Liberty," or they can go the way of the Taliban, the way of Gujarat, the way of Delhi (where the police shot and killed a gambler on Diwali some years ago.)

And talking about the Taliban reminds me that these guys are taking over Pakistan. If we want to challenge their political ideas, the Goa Model of Liberty is a powerful antidote.

That is, Hindootva is no answer to the Taliban, for these Hindoos are just another set of tyrants. It is Liberty that is the best political response. Liberty allows every Individual to "pursue happiness" as he wishes. And good luck to him if he decides to gamble.