Paddy Power’s cheap Knock joke rings hollow

Something interesting happened this week. The Daily Edge, the entertainment-news arm of thejournal.ie, posted an utterly tasteless satire about Electric Picnic.

It parodied the Stations of the Cross, the traditional depictions of the last hours of Christ leading up to the Crucifixion. It used stock religious imagery but crudely altered them, so that instead of a cross Christ was carrying huge quantities of beer. Instead of wiping the face of the suffering Christ, Veronica helps him to put his tent up. Instead of falling three times, three hangovers are referenced.

So far it’s just another demonstration of the insensitive inability to respect other people’s beliefs. But the interesting thing is not that images were used but that these doctored images were taken down – and, as far as I know, before there was an outcry on social media or talk radio.

That the Daily Edge removed its images indicates that someone, somewhere, realised there is a line beyond which humour becomes gratuitously offensive

When someone alerted me to the images they had about six online comments, which could all be summed up by, “Ah, here, lads, that’s really going too far.” That they were removed is somewhat positive, because it indicates that someone, somewhere, realised that there is a line beyond which humour becomes gratuitously offensive.

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It is significant that the Daily Edge images emphasised, accidentally or otherwise, how virtually every social event revolves around drinking – and often around dangerous levels of drinking. How about a societywide discussion about how challenging dangerous levels of drinking among your peers is much less acceptable than mocking Christian beliefs?

Brazen defence

While not condoning the crassness of posting the doctored images in the first place, taking them down contrasts with the brazen way that Paddy Power, the bookmaker, continued to defend its projection of a huge image on to the basilica in Knock. It was of the Virgin Mary holding the Sam Maguire cup over her head.

No permission was sought, because it would have been rejected out of hand. It was a calculated tactic designed to exploit the publicity generated by controversy. There seems to be a company policy of carefully calibrated offence. Although the village of Knock at night is surely a bit of a soft target.

Lourdes is also a Marian shrine, where security has been stepped up enormously since the latest spate of terrorist attacks in Europe. Not much chance this bookmaker would parody the religious beliefs of militant Islamists, is there? Or risk aggrieving French security forces?

Some people will say that using sacred images to increase attention and profits is “just a bit of craic” and that Christians need to lighten up. Funny: they used to say that to women for years, as well, about unwanted advances.

Paddy Power Betfair had revenue of €1.5 billion last year by promoting gambling as "just a bit of craic". For many people it is. But for a significant number of people a gambling addiction leads them to trample on everything that is sacred to them, their family, their friends and their view of themselves as people of integrity.

An odd coincidence that a company that can benefit from the consequences of an addiction also chose to trample on what is sacred to people in terms of religious imagery.

Crack cocaine of gambling

Naturally, the gambling industry wants to appear to support people gambling responsibly. But it is significant that Stewart Kenny, the well-known former chief executive of Paddy Power, warned the Irish government in 2009 not to legalise fixed-odds betting terminals, describing them as the "crack cocaine of gambling".

But Paddy Power in the UK has more of these machines in minority ethnic areas than any other bookmaker has. So not good enough for the Irish but fine for some of the poorest communities in Britain?

Young people are gambling more because of free apps, but the younger you start the more likely you are to develop a problem. The betting industry wants to portray the people who develop a problem as oddities, all the time designing an environment designed to encourage more gambling.

Given that online gambling is accessible via a mobile phone, the wonder is that so many manage to avoid addiction, not that a minority become addicted

Given that online gambling is accessible via a mobile phone, and given the dopamine rush associated with irregular rewards, the wonder is that so many manage to avoid addiction, not that a minority become addicted.

The statistics on problem gambling are frightening. We have an estimated 28,000 to 40,000 problem gamblers. A small study by the University College Dublin academic Dr Crystal Fulton involving qualitative research with 22 problem gamblers revealed a pattern of debt, damaged or destroyed marriages, friendship breakdown and chaotic, compulsive behaviour.

Of course people have to take personal responsibility. But when you see the devastation caused by gambling, including the fact that one in five problem gamblers dies by suicide, a figure far higher than for other addictions, it stops being “just a bit of craic”.

It is easy, and cheap, to mock and parody religious belief for the purposes of increasing customer numbers and profit. It is difficult, and costly, to try to build a culture where we are less tolerant of behaviours that end up crucifying so many families.