Banned!

A HEATED debate has been sparked in Morocco after statements by Moroccan Telecommunications Minister Mustapha al-Khalfi claimed that live transmission of gambling should be banned.

“I will not allow gambling games to be screened live on state TV which is funded by the Moroccan people even if this costs me my job,” Khalfi told members of the Education, Culture, and Communications Committee in the parliament.

Khalfi, the youngest minister in the new government headed by the Islamist-oriented Justice and Development Party, said that youth’s could be negatively unfluenced.

 “On one day in February, the number of viewers watching live gambling was more than 900,000.”

Khalfi added that the ban on live gambling on state TV is observed all over the world even in the most liberal of countries.

“There is a difference between social liberalism and this type of unlimited liberalism that does not work towards protecting younger generations.”

Lakhal added that Moroccan citizens suffer a lot in their daily lives and many of them do not lead a dignified life owing to the several drawbacks in the administrative system and such problems should have been the priority of the new government.

“Banning live gambling will not solve any of the problems of average citizens. This only concerns gamblers and anyway they know where to go when they want to gamble and will not be affected by the ban.”

Kettani argued that it is the poor who suffer the most when gambling is allowed because they are the ones who are tempted to gamble in the hope of making some money.

“It is unacceptable on both the social and the human levels not to protect those poor from giving in to those illusions of fast gain.”