Casino Sabbat

I’ve never been much of a gambler. When I say not much I mean I’ve put on a couple of bets and that’s it. Put money on a horse once and it didn’t finish. Put a fiver on Gabriel Batistuta to be the top scorer in the 1998 World Cup, he did well in getting five goals, but Davor Suker banged in six. I might have bought a lottery ticket once. When traveling around America I passed through Las Vegas for a couple of days and only wandered in a casino for a few minutes.
You get the picture, its not a vice that I partake in.
Though I did visit the new casino in Westfield’s shopping centre in Stratford the other Saturday. I think that by the end of the night I worked out how to play blackjack.

From the limited time that I’ve spent in casinos I’ve noticed that they’re the biggest cultural melting pot there is. No other place compares. Old, young, black, white, Asian, all together under the same roof desperately trying to claw back some money that the house has taken from them.
And it is the only place where a you’ll find a Hasidic Jew out and about on a Saturday night. Isn’t a Saturday the Shabbat? I didn’t think they were even allowed to turn on a light switch. God apparently goes mental when that happens.
After looking at what you’re not allowed to do on the Shabbat there is no mention of gambling. Though you can’t do things like plough, gather, plant, slaughter, bake, write and extinguish a fire. That’s right, you can’t put out a fire even if property is being damaged. Only if a life is at risk.
So I guess that in Israel even firemen get the Saturday off work.