Mexico City, Mexico, Sep 16, 2004 / 22:00 pm
The Mexican Bishops’ Conference have issued a statement warning of the dangers involved in the Mexican government’s plan to legalize casinos and betting houses in the country in an attempt to create jobs and aid economic development.
The plan “runs the risk of devaluing the value and dignity of work” in preference of the “luck of bets,” said the statement, “ and this is the high cost paid by generating employment and riches through casinos and betting houses.”
“Studies have been done...which demonstrate the harm done by this ‘gaming’ industry and its negative repercussions in the lives of many people and their families,” said the bishops.
They state that the economy must be structured and rehabilitated on the basis of ethics because ethics are more and more subjugated to the interests of a dehumanizing economy.”
“A positive result cannot be hoped for from the legalization of casinos and betting houses… in neither quantity nor quality do they contribute to the economic development of a country, moreover, they could be an obstacle” to development, affirmed the bishops’ statement.