And now we are about to have at least one super-casino, and if that is a success there is still the option that we might have several more, though with the super-casinos I don't think that there's even the pretence that it is really just another way of giving to charity. 

Under advice from the Gaming Board, it seems that the Government may have to step in to control the new on-line lottery targeted at pubs and clubs, with a draw every five minutes. Some charities estimate that there are already more than one and a half million "problem gamblers" in Britain, with three-quarters of a million of them teenagers.

The problem has been encountered before. Drawing lots is nothing new. In Muhammad's time people gathered in groups, pooled their money, drew lots and the winner took it all. This form of gambling was forbidden.

But it was recognised that risking pure chance is different from other types of risk. The community were still allowed to take risks in matters of skill or judgement, for that's an essential aspect of the human make-up, seen not just in racehorse owners, but in stock-market brokers, businessmen, soldiers and politicians. It's a case of being prepared to put your money where your mouth is.

But the scale of Lottery participation reflects on a disturbing aspect of the nation's psyche, with its underlying assumption that the perfect way to transform your personal situation is to use chance wealth to rise above the cares of the rest of the community (though even winners, in the face of such a situation can find the event traumatic). The suggestion is, of course, that the punters aren't so much coveting the prizes as giving to charity.

Yet surely the best form of charity, for both individual and society, is that which is given without self-interest, giving part of what we have to those who have less, the donation itself being sufficient reward, as well as meeting and sharing with others trying to do the same, bonding as a community to help those in need, and shaping the community into one that we can trust will be there for us whenever we might need it.

Muhammad said: "You will see the faithful in their having mercy for one another, and in their love for one another, and in their kindness towards one another, like the body - when one member of it suffers the entire body suffers, one part calling out to the other with sleeplessness and fever."