The World around Us. Любинская Н.А. - 17 стр.

D. Follow up
1. Are takeovers, mergers and acquisitions rare things in business?
2. There are rumors that Moscow businessmen intend to buy lands and dying
    farms in the Voronezh Region? What are pros and cons of this possible in-
    trusion?

E. Writing
Write 3 sentences about what Milton Hershey would have done or wouldn’t
have done about his creation “Hershey Empire”.

                         Unit 5. Hard Luck Story
Lead in
1. What other addictions besides gambling are there?
2. What addictions are closest to business?
3. How do companies make money on people’s weaknesses?

                                  Hard Luck Story
        Canadians like to think of themselves as prudent, level-headed people.
Yet that self-image is a little out of date. In less than a decade the amount they
lose in lotteries, casinos, slot machines and the like has quadrupled. The average
Canadian now admits to spending C$424 ($270) per year gambling. Since most
people lie to themselves about such matter, the true figure may be as much as
C$1,000.
        Only a generation ago, charity bingos and church raffles were about as
risky as things got. Now there are 60-odd casinos scattered across the country;
many are in Indian reservations, where they are valued for jobs as well as reve-
nue. Daily lotteries often pay out C$10m or more. Video-lottery machines,
dubbed gambling’s crack-cocaine for their cheap, fleeting thrill, are particularly
popular. Staff in corner shops now regularly ask customers whether they want a
lotto (loto in French-speaking Canada) with their shopping.
        All of this is manna for Canada’s provincial governments, who are the
monopoly owners of legal gambling outlets. These provided profits totaling C$6
billion in 2001. In Alberta, the richest province thanks to its oil and gas, gam-
bling may soon overtake corporate income tax as a source of revenue.
        Perhaps that is why governments have seemed reluctant to consider gam-
bling’s social impact. “They don’t ask the questions they don’t want to know the
answers to,” says Jason Azmier of Canada West Foundation, a Calgary-based
thinktank which recently concluded a three-year study of gambling.
        But some are starting to ask questions – or at least to look for others to
blame for their own stupidity. Loto-Quebec, the agency that runs gaming in the
province, is being sued for almost C$700m on behalf of an estimated 125,000
pathological gamblers. This class-action suit is led by Jean Brochu, a lawyer
from Quebec city, who embezzled C$50,000 from his professional body to feed
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