Seduction

A business which is involved in delivering to human cravings is a sure shot. I am not talking about a dollop of ice cream here; it’s the hard stuff like gambling, narcotics, liquor, tobacco and sex. These were prevalent from times yore. Soma, a concoction of Cannabis, Poppy and Ephedra, was mentioned in the Vedas as a drink much sought after. The Geishas have been satisfying Japanese perversions for centuries. Amsterdam even has a cannabis museum!!!

Ethical and legal issues aside, these segments have been amassing huge amounts of money. Let’s talk about Gambling for a while. Casinos are raking in money by the millions. At the start of the 20th century, Las Vegas was a desert town, where a passerby would not give a second look. Then the Mafia syndicate came in and changed it all. The illusions of making a quick buck and grandeur bought in people like bees to honey. Las Vegas became the city of sin, anything goes, if Satan had a home on earth, it would be there.

Countries seduced by the huge gains of having a Las Vegas of their own, have been seriously thinking of legalising gambling and helping investors to setup Super Casinos. England and Macau has one, Singapore is building one and if Dubai had its way, they would have the largest one in the world. Argument is that it brings in huge tourist inflows and revenues, on the other hand, some argue it would bring with it the lewdness associated with the industry.

Goa has legalised gambling but only on ships moored on the coast though. We are getting there. The seductive tones of the ‘gambling sirens’ are too much for us mere mortals.