50.世事难料(1811)

Passage Fifty

All bets are off

【1】You will no doubt have heard the gambling industry’s famous slogan: “When the fun stops: stop.” This has never seemed like a very good motto, even for the gambling industry, which has somehow managed to wheedle the word “fun” into its own public health warning.

【2】For one thing it puts a full stop on pretty much every form of human activity. Nothing is ever unstoppably fun. Rolling inside a giant soap bubble down a mountainside made of parmesan cheese while being served highend savoury canapés by a team of elite stand-up comedians? Fine for a while, but it’s probably going to start feeling a little awkward(embarrassed) and forced after the first five hours or so.

【3】Fun is a marketing tool. So when your key strapline involves stopping when it stops, then maybe this isn’t about fun at all, but something more sinister(ugly). And perhaps it’s something the industry itself needs to take more responsibility for. This is the best thing, in my opinion, about the Guardian’s decision this summer to stop taking gambling adverts.

【4】 Sport has become such a politically charged entity that there is a tendency to “other side” every issue. Oh, so you think it’s bad to have a football club owned by a despotic(absolute) monarchy known to dismember its political opponents(rivals): and yet you still wear leather shoes. Explain that.

【5】By contrast this is not a grey issue, no matter how hard those who work in the industry might try to make it one. Aggressively marketed online gambling, always available, a constant gabbling soundtrack to every single sporting event: this is purely(entirely) parasitic.

【6】It contributes nothing to the spectacle beyond a demonstrable wider harm, from financial distress(difficulty) and mental health issues, to referred problems for those affected by gambling addiction in others. gambling has been introduced by stealth as a key part of experiencing sport for a generation of young people, replacing, say, collecting football cards as a shared activity during a tournament summer.

【7】You can try to other-side this too. You can point to the money gambling pumps into sport, which doesn’t generally need it to survive. You can say, hey we’re all grown-ups. Maybe I like the odd punt(gamble), Mr Scold. It’s a free country. Which is true. On the other hand I also like drinking, smoking and shooting guns. But it might be a bit weird to have them marketed relentlessly(ruthlessly) at events attended(joined) by children under the age of 10.

【8】Some will point out that it is the government’s job to regulate this, not a news operation. But it turns out the government is – and this might come as a surprise – absolutely(completely) hopeless at this, as is the Premier League. Recently there was a UK advertising Standards Association case which established that Peter Crouch is unappealing(unattractive) to children.

【9】The ASA concluded that Crouch had “overwhelmingly adult commercial appeal”, basically so he can keep on gurning away pushing smartphone gambling stuff at sports events. Meanwhile the Premier League has finally cracked down on advertising gambling websites on the front of shirts. But don’t worry. You can still do it on the sleeves!

【10】Your employer won’t always do things you wholeheartedly agree with. But this time the Guardian is spot on. The cost is too great. Which does bring us to the one downside. This is not actually a rational commercial decision, opening up the question of how exactly we’re going to replace that money while funding the continued operation of an occasionally(accidentally) quite good sportsbased news entity.

【11】And so, having spent 600 words jibing at the gambling industry for taking money from impressionable people at the click of a button, it now falls to me to thank readers for supporting the Guardian and its values by buying (or subscribing to) this newspaper.

第五十课

世事难料

你一定听说过博彩业的著名口号：“乐趣停止时，请停下”。这似乎从来都不是一个很好的座右铭，即使对博彩业来说也是如此，因为博彩业想方设法把 “乐趣”一词引入其公共健康警示中。

首先，这句座右铭几乎给所有形式的人类活动都画上了句号。没有什么事情会一直有趣。沿着山坡滚动在一个巨大的肥皂泡里，而山坡由帕尔马干酪构成，同时还有一群精英单口喜剧演员端上高级开胃点心？一时半会儿还行，但过了头五个小时左右，你可能就会开始觉得有点尴尬和勉强了。

乐趣是一种营销手段。所以，如果重要口号是“乐趣停止时，请停下”，也许这根本不是乐趣，而是更险恶的东西。也许这正是博彩业需要承担更多责任的地方。在我看来，《卫报》今年夏天决定停止刊登赌博广告是一件很好的事。

体育已经充满了政治色彩，以至于每个问题都有从“另一面”看待的倾向。哦，所以你认为拥有一个由会肢解政治对手的专制君主控制的足球俱乐部是不好的，但你还穿着皮鞋。请解释一下。

相比之下，无论赌博业的从业者如何竭力使其模棱两可，赌博业都不是一个灰色问题。网络赌博的强势营销一直存在且无处不在，成为了每场体育赛事的背景音乐：这完全是寄生虫。

赌博对赛事毫无益处可言，反而带来了明显的广泛危害，如经济困难、心理健康问题，以及受他人赌瘾影响产生的问题。对于年轻一代来说，赌博已悄然成为体验体育运动的重要组成部分，取代了夏季赛事期间收集足球卡的共享活动。

你也可以试着从其他方面看待这个问题。你可以指出赌博给体育运动注入的资金，但体育运动通常并不需要这些资金维持生存。你可以说，嘿，我们都是成年人了。也许我就是喜欢赌一把，批评家先生。这是个自由的国家。的确是这样。另一方面，我也喜欢喝酒、抽烟和射击。但在有10岁以下儿童参加的活动中无情地推销这些东西，可能会有点奇怪。

有些人会指出，监管这种行为是政府的职责，而不是新闻机构。但事实证明，政府在这方面，可能会让人大吃一惊，完全无望，而英超联赛也是如此。最近英国广告标准协会的案例认定，彼得·克劳奇对儿童没有吸引力。

广告标准协会的结论是，克劳奇具有“压倒性的成人商业吸引力”，这基本上是为了让他能继续在体育赛事上推销智能手机赌博产品。与此同时，英超联赛终于取缔了在球衣正面刊登赌博网站广告的做法。不过别担心。你还可以在袖子上放广告！

你的雇主不会总是做你完全认可的事情。但是这次《卫报》做对了。但代价太大了。这确实给我们带来了不利影响。这实际上不是一个理性的商业决定，引出了一个问题：我们究竟该如何替代刊登赌博广告带来收入，同时为一家偶尔还算不错的体育新闻实体提供运营资金。

因此，我用600字讽刺了赌博业，因为他们通过点击就能从容易受影响的人那里赚到钱，现在我要感谢读者们通过购买（或订阅）这份报纸来支持《卫报》及其价值观。