Recently, as most of us know, there was a huge scandal at Boston College involving thirteen of their football players. The students all had allegedly bet on some sort of game. Two of the students though, were accused of betting against their own school in the football game against Pittsburgh. They were thrown out of B. C. and the others were suspended from the football team.

This is the question we, as a society, have to answer: is gambling morally wrong? It could be said that it was right for the two football players (who bet against their own team) to be thrown out of school, but should the other eleven students involved in gambling be punished? The answer a large number of people supports is no.

As a society we seem to be both endorsing and promoting gambling. Almost every day you can find the point spread in most major papers on future sporting events. Whenever we take a ride or walk down the street, we see signs in convenience and liquor stores and gas station windows advertising Megabucks, Mass Millions, Powerball, scratch tickets, and the newest gambling idea to hit the Bay State, the Big Game. In addition to this state running legalized gambling, there are up-and-coming, very profitable Native American casinos. In the early eighties there was even a TV advertising campaign saying that it was stupid for people to work hard in school or at their jobs, because all they had to do was play the lottery.

Basically as a society, we have no right to punish those eleven individuals until we stop promoting and endorsing legalized gambling in our towns, cities, and states. ?