The World’s Gamble

Author: Flor Ayag

ALL you need is a dollar and a dream.” The dream was to win the New York lottery jackpot of 45 million dollars. A dollar bought a shot at winning. The dreamers came by the millions. Standing in line to buy their tickets, they chatted about yachts and mink coats and mansions—things they would buy if they won the prize money. At one point, throughout the state, they snapped up tickets at the rate of 28,000 per minute. In the final three days before the drawing, they bought 37.4 million tickets.

In Japan business is always brisk at the 10,000 authorized lottery booths where people flock to buy tickets for the Year-End Jumbo Takarakuji (Lottery). At one Tokyo booth where five first-prize tickets had reportedly been sold in previous years, about 300 people were already standing in line when the booth opened for business. One young woman, who believed that luck favors the early bird, had been waiting since 1:00 a.m. The coveted jackpot last year: a record 100 million yen ($714,285, U.S.).

In a West African capital, what the locals call the Lotto College area is always crowded with people who have come to buy tickets and to speculate on future numbers. Long lists of past winning numbers are sold to those who hope to find in them some clue to future combinations. For those with faith in mystic knowledge, lotto prophets are on hand to prophesy, for a fee, numbers to bet on.

Isolated occurrences? By no means. Lottery fever is pandemic. It inflames every continent. It burns in rich countries and poor. It excites young and old at every economic, social, and educational level of society.

Yes, lotteries are big business, and business is booming. In the United States alone, State lotteries took in $18.5 thousand million in 1989. Only 27 years ago, that figure was zero. But now lotteries are the second-largest form of gambling in the United States, and the industry is growing by 17.5 percent every year, as fast as the computer industry.

Worldwide lottery sales in 1988, according to the latest figures available from the magazine Gaming and Wagering Business, totaled $56.38 thousand million, an enormous figure. That amounts to more than ten dollars for every man, woman, and child on earth! And that’s in just one year!

While no one can deny that lotteries are prospering, many argue strongly against them. The next two articles examine the growing popularity of lotteries and the controversy behind them. As you consider the facts, you will be able to decide whether lotteries are for you. Is it smart to play? How easy is it to win? Can you lose more than money?

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The Tokyo Summit

Author: Flor Ayag

THE leaders of the seven most industrialized democracies today open their summit conference . . . to find a way out of the deepening world oil crisis, reported the Mainichi Daily News.

But did they find a way out? What was the result of this impressive summit conference held in Tokyo, Japan, this past summer, representing the leaders of some of the most powerful nations? Indeed, why was the meeting held?

Since the oil crisis of 1973, when the oil-exporting nations dramatically increased oil prices, the countries having to import oil have been hard pressed by inflation, recession and disorder in world money markets. For this reason, beginning in 1975, annual economic summit conferences were held to find solutions.

But are the nations better off now than they were four years ago? No, for there was even greater urgency at the Tokyo meeting because of the energy crisis of 1979.

So this summit meeting concentrated on energy. The main issues were: the oil supply, oil prices, inflation, the gap between richer and poorer nations, and international money woes.

However, as if to taunt the summit, on the very day its meeting opened, a three-day conference of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) concluded in Geneva, Switzerland. Its result? The OPEC nations announced another large increase in oil prices, pushing the price as high as $23.50 (U.S.) a barrel, when not too long ago it was about one tenth that price! This increase, on top of others made this year, means that oil prices have risen about 50 percent in 1979!

What Was the Outcome?

What did the Tokyo summit accomplish? Since the main target was the oil problem, a joint declaration said: The most urgent tasks are to reduce oil consumption and to hasten the development of other energy.

The participating nations agreed to try to maintain, for about five years, a level of oil imports no greater than that of 1977 or 1978. However, some observed that this was not much help, since oil imports were at peak levels then.

The summit declaration also spoke of intensifying efforts to pursue the economic policies appropriate in each of our countries to achieve durable external equilibrium. In other words, each country will make its own decision as to what is appropriate economic policy.

One paragraph caused discomfort for Japan. It said: We deplore the decision taken by the recent OPEC conference. We recognize that relative moderation was displayed by certain participants. But the unwarranted rise in oil prices nevertheless agreed upon are bound to have very serious economic and social consequences.

The Daily Yomiuri reported: Foreign Minister Sonoda was displeased with the strong censure of OPEC. Why this sensitivity? Because Japan imports almost all its oil from OPEC. Thus the article concluded: One top Foreign Ministry official said after the Tokyo summit that Japan would take steps to placate the oil-producing nations.

Obviously, these seven nations did not achieve one of their most important goals—unity of action. Also, the problems confronting these, and other nations, are just as large now as they were before the Tokyo summit. Actually, they are larger, because the price of oil is much higher now.

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