No Gambling Madam !
Last week Max and I managed a sneaky dinner out together, just the two of us. We only went to the local restaurant associated with the gated community we live in. We went early hoping for a quick bite before an early night. It's usually very busy on weekends but was even unusually busy for a Wednesday night with lots of business people there grabbing a bite after work.
We were lucky to get a table near the terrace and decided that we should entertain ourselves with a quick game of cards. I nearly always have a deck of cards in my handbag, especially with how much travelling we do, and the inevitable downtime/delays we have in airports and hotels. A quick game of 31 or Snap is always fun on the road, and our games can get quite competitive.
So, there we were enjoying our cold drink and playing 31, when I get a tap on the shoulder from the waitstaff asking me to stop playing, as it is illegal to gamble. 'You must stop playing and must put them away Madam'. I was completely gobsmacked - my 11 year old and I were playing a friendly game of cards and there definitely wasn't any money changing hands - or even any bribes !!
Gambling is heavily restricted in India and most of the legal gambling is restricted to lotteries and horse racing. Many people would have heard about the issues with bribes, corruption and match fixing, so you can understand why gambling has been made illegal. I could only imagine what horror stories I would hear and see if local Indians had easy access to gambling. Poverty is such a massive issue that I am happy that it's not readily available for people to lose their 'hard earned' wages to gambling.
When it comes to our friendly game of cards I cannot see any reason why we were told NOT to play cards, as it is actually not illegal, unless you are playing for money. Oh well, we learned our lesson and know to bring a notepad and pen and play Hangman or Tic-Tac-Toe next time.
We were lucky to get a table near the terrace and decided that we should entertain ourselves with a quick game of cards. I nearly always have a deck of cards in my handbag, especially with how much travelling we do, and the inevitable downtime/delays we have in airports and hotels. A quick game of 31 or Snap is always fun on the road, and our games can get quite competitive.
So, there we were enjoying our cold drink and playing 31, when I get a tap on the shoulder from the waitstaff asking me to stop playing, as it is illegal to gamble. 'You must stop playing and must put them away Madam'. I was completely gobsmacked - my 11 year old and I were playing a friendly game of cards and there definitely wasn't any money changing hands - or even any bribes !!
Gambling is heavily restricted in India and most of the legal gambling is restricted to lotteries and horse racing. Many people would have heard about the issues with bribes, corruption and match fixing, so you can understand why gambling has been made illegal. I could only imagine what horror stories I would hear and see if local Indians had easy access to gambling. Poverty is such a massive issue that I am happy that it's not readily available for people to lose their 'hard earned' wages to gambling.
When it comes to our friendly game of cards I cannot see any reason why we were told NOT to play cards, as it is actually not illegal, unless you are playing for money. Oh well, we learned our lesson and know to bring a notepad and pen and play Hangman or Tic-Tac-Toe next time.
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