Catholic Punter #1: “Our Father which art in Heaven, let the last race be won by Horse Number Seven.”

Catholic Punter #2: “Hail Mary, full of grace! Let Horse Number Seven finish in first place.”

The race is then run. A voice from above says: “This is the voice of the Holy Ghost. Horse Number Seven got left at the post.”

Principled young women with a passion for punting?

If you really wanna piss your cat off say that three times close to her face.

Lord Hippo suffered fearful loss
By putting money on a horse
Which he believed, if it were pressed,
Would run far faster than the rest;
For someone who was in the know
Had confidently told him so.
But on the morning of the race,
It only took the seventh place!
Picture the Viscount’s great surprise!
He scarcely could believe his eyes!
He sought the the Individual
Who had laid him odds at nine-to-two,
Suggesting as a useful tip
That they should enter partnership
And put to joint account the debt
Arising from his foolish bet.
But when the bookie - oh! my word!
I only wish you could have heard
The way he roared he did not think,
And hoped that they might strike him pink!
Lord Hippo simply turned and ran
From this infuriated man.
Despairing, maddened and distraught,
He utterly collapsed and sought
His sire, comma, the Earl of Potamus,
And brokenly addressed him thus:
“Dread sire - today - at Ascot - I…”
His genial parent made reply:
“Come! Come! Come! Come! Don’t look so glum!
Trust your papa and name the sum…
WHAT… fifteen hundred thousand?… HUM!
However, stiffen up you wreck;
Boys will be boys - so here’s the cheque!”
Lord Hippo, feeling deeply - well,
More grateful than he cared to tell -
Punted the lot on Little Nel: -
And got a telegram at dinner
To say…
……….. that he had backed the Winner!

I just wanted to make a quick apology to anyone whose comment has been held up because of moderation. Because of the subject a lot of spam comments discuss, a lot of words relating to gaming and wagering trigger the filter - quite inadvertently in this instance.

Furthermore, whilst earlier canon law took a dim view of gambling, in recent centuries, the Church has been more tolerant of such business, provided that it’s fair and done in moderation. To quote the Catechism directly…

“Games of chance (card games, etc.) or wagers are not in themselves contrary to justice. They become morally unacceptable when they deprive someone of what is necessary to provide for his needs and those of others. The passion for gambling risks becoming an enslavement. Unfair wagers and cheating at games constitute grave matter, unless the damage inflicted is so slight that the one who suffers it cannot reasonably consider it significant.” -Article 2413, for the curious.

Yes, the outcry is to be expected. However, (as many people here have aptly pointed out) the teachers are getting kids to consider the science of probability in an interesting, real-life fashion, whilst highlighting the risks and issues surrounding it. In my humble opinion, game on!

(PS: this is my first time commenting here. Pleasure to meet you all!)

Having said that (by way of observation not condemnation), I like the stories about Catholicism and gambling. I went to a funeral once conducted by a “racing priest” and everyone felt compelled to point out this fact. And then, since Roger mentioned Pascal, he had a rather famous Wager too.

I’m disgusted by this mainly because all of the middle class bitches … errr, young women (scarred by all girls Catholic School much? me?) I went to school with at Mt. St. Michael’s College LOVE going to The Races. The Races is the ultimate day out for girls who go to school like this, and judging by all the photos of them in their race day best on Facebook, it hasn’t become any less fashionable since I was at school. If your school fees fund an excursion to the races, all the better to prepare you for this thrilling social event of drinking and gambling as an adult.

Of course there are: bookies, racing officials, jockeys, breeders, TAB persons, and sports journalists.

If you want to be an authentic australian and keep the traditions alive then borrow the $ off your employer in advance of next weeks wages or collect a long standing debt off an old mate and go down to your local SP bookie in the last barbershop left standing and sling him the used readies folded up in the Sporting Globe.

Going the punt has been a long standing irish catholic tradition and the sisters are to be commended for encouraging the lasses to understand the track. They need to go further a revive the fast diminishing tradition of the parish priest owning a hay burner in partnership with some locals. Might even increase vocations.

Plus it has an advantage, debunking the ‘gamblers’ bias. You know the one, that if you have an event with a known set of outcomes and a known probability for each outcome, there is a perception that previous results over/under representing that probability are more/less likely to occur, for example throwing 4 heads in a row in a coin toss, then expecting that the probability of a tails coming up is bigger because it’s ‘due’ to come up. This one is epically bad on things like two-up, craps, roulette, virtually any card game and our old favourite slot machines. And anything that shows that bias for what it is good in my opinion.

PinkyOz

So why not do both stock market investment and gambling? Although these days it’s hard to tell the difference. (See Enron, sub-prime mortgages, ANZ, etc…)

I think it would be very educational for both these to be used as examples, so people learn the difference between investing and gambling. This isn’t new though? We used card games as examples for probability at high school.

I always understood Catholics were supposed to prefer gambling to sex.

Ergo the Rythm Method.

But Queensland Australian Families Association spokesman Mark Holzworth says there are better ways to teach the principles of risk and return.

“For many years now there has been in existence such things as the stockmarket game, where kids are able to pit themselves against the market, against other participants in the market, and thereby gain understanding of the risks relevant to return opportunities,” he said.

So why not do both stock market investment and gambling? Although these days it’s hard to tell the difference. (See Enron, sub-prime mortgages, ANZ, etc…)

I took up gambling at about 13 after being chauffered to the Moonee Valley trots by a catholic priest after altar-boying for him at Saturday evening mass (with my mother’s permission - clearly it was some years ago…). His tip in the third was a goody and my $3.15 return on 50c each way got me on my way - swiftly downhill, as your observations about odds could have told me had I paid more attention in maths.

It continued into Year 12 at a prominent Melb catholic boys college (I hadn’t gotten sick enough of losing my paper-round money yet - slow learner). Together with a posse of other wayward lads and the Year 12 co-ordinator (also the Pure Maths teacher), we’d attend to a reasonably complicated mathematical system of rating a horse’s run based on inputs like track condition, lengths from the winner, etc. Each Monday morning we’d check each other’s calculations and slate the horses we’d follow on that basis.

I probably honed my mathematical capabilities substantially through the process but I’d say the girls at Mt St Michaels will be getting a far more useful insight into the neddies from their catholic maths education… All power to ‘em.