Gambling In 2016 Was Imposed On Many By Few

”Just write a review of gambling in 2016,” said my boss as he jetted off to somewhere far warmer for the duration of the festive season, “ and try and make it funny…..y’know….for Christmas.” I believe his intentions were good, it seems on the face of it such an easy task, however as I broke the ice on my keyboard the next morning I realized that any review of 2016’s big gambles probably wouldn’t be about gambling.

Irregardless of whether you prefer to bet on sports in the US, go to a Malay casino in Monaco, wager on the horses in Hong Kong or just lounge comfortably at home on Bet365, the acceptable norms of gambling all have one thing in common. Your consent. Bookmakers do NOT come to your home and threaten you with dire consequences if you DON’T bet on something today, you have to actually go and seek them out to participate. Gambling in 2016 however seemed more imposed than offered as an option.

Gambling in 2016

• Enforced global betting?
• Caution to the wind?
• High stakes, low blow

Proponents of recreational gambling will often point out that everything is a risk to one degree or another and since none of you humans can see the future you’re never quite sure what will result from your actions, your choices, even your statements, questions or answers. You are, they say, already gambling all the time, so why not do some more in one of these organized games. This seems a perfectly reasonable position, but if we all went gambling in 2016 who raised the stakes? And how the heck do I make it “funny”?

Big Global Gambling In 2016 Staked Us All

There is nothing so freeing as throwing caution to the wind and this year a lot of people took that to heart, casting aside the old certainties and gambling in 2016 things would be better if there were vast wholesale changes to the very frameworks of our world. The fact the rest of us have been dragged along with their sudden desire for “different” seems not to bother them in the slightest and vast swathes of the planet are now populated by people who find themselves gambling on a game not of their choice.

The big triad of unwelcome gambling in 2016 were the British voting for Brexit in a kamikaze move engineered by secret German agent Nigel Farrage seeking revenge after the loss of World War II, the Russians doubling down in the Middle East with heavier involvement in Syria and democracy leaving a lot of people in the US gambling laws of common sense could not be so obviously abused by so many of their fellow Americans, only to lose and see Donald Trump ascend to the highest office in the land.

Wager At Bet365 But Not Against International Terrorism

However mandatory gambling in 2016 was not limited to just world leaders and the fate of nations, the leaking of the Panama Papers causing several individuals to bet they could bribe their way out of a tax evasion charge, athletes at Rio 2016 had to wager their health against Zika mosquitoes and massive water pollution, whilst Rodrigo Duterte ensured every drug dealer in the Philippines is gambling with their very lives each and every day. However it is perhaps the violence that has imposed a more serious wager on us all.

It shouldn’t be necessary to stake one’s life on seeing a firework display in Nice, visiting Pulse in Orlando, or flying out of Ataturk Airport, but gambling in 2016 has extended way beyond the everyday hope one isn’t knocked down by a car or bitten by zombies on the way to work, even Christmas shopping is a risk now, Breitscheidplatz in Berlin just the latest target of extremist violence that hit Lahore, the Ivory Coast and numerous other locations across the world leaving most in the US gambling news headlines next year will be less ghastly. It is a gamble we’re all being forced into and it is one we shall more than likely lose. Merry Christmas? BAH! Humbug! And as for “funny” it just wasn’t. Sorry boss.

A review of gambling in 2016? Just look back at the headlines on our Daily News Page, the writing is very much upon the wall.