The Gambling Vice

[17] Anita Green, the director of social research at Pax World Fund, the third-largest social responsibility mutual fund, recently referred to gambling as "a vice that inflicts crushing social costs on American society". Noting that seven of the largest 20 mutual funds in the U . S. hold one or more gambling stocks, she suggests that investors pick a fund that has sworn to avoid them--namely, her own.

[18] Gambling, which Green opposes so strongly, is to me a pleasurable activity. I go to the racetrack, watch the pageantry of the horses, jockeys and silks, and enjoy the spectacle more because I have a $ 2 or $ bet on the outcome. I enjoy spending a day or two in Las Vegas or Atlantic City. But I go only once every year or two, and set myself a limit of $ 50 or $ 100 a day. When that's gone, I walk around and see the sights.

[19] For better or worse, it appears that America is still moving in the direction of more gambling. So I think that casino and lottery stocks--issues like Scientific Games Holdings Corp., Mirage Resorts Inc. and Mandalay Resort Group--are good bets.

[20] The impulse to invest ethically is praiseworthy, but I'm skeptical of "one size fits all" approaches to it. And I think anyone attempting to invest ethically should have respect for the complexity and difficulty of the task

Gap's problem

[21] For example, Pax World Fund, based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, says it invests only in companies "that treat their employees, their environment, and their communities with respect". I'm sure it makes every effort to do so, but in an imperfect world, these decisions get mighty tricky.

[22] Pax World's largest stockholding is Gap Inc. Friday, Gap (along with some other retailers) lost in its attempt to dismiss a lawsuit accusing it of selling clothes made under sweatshop conditions in the U.S. territory of Saipan. In August, four other defendants in that suit, including Nordstrom Inc. and J. Crew Group Inc., agreed to settle the claims against them by establishing a $ 1.25 million fund to monitor working conditions of their Saipan workplaces.

[23] None of this necessarily means that Gap is a bad company, or culpable in the Saipan case. But it does illustrate the difficulty in making ethical investing decisions.

赌博恶习：

阿妮塔·格林是第三大社会保障共同基金——派克斯世界基金——的社会研究经理，最近她指责博彩业是“一种让美国社会付出毁灭性代价的恶疾”。她注意到美国最大的20个共同基金中的7个拥有1个或多个此类股票，于是呼吁投资者选择那些发誓不买博彩股的基金----也就是她自己所任职的基金。

格林如此激烈反对的博彩对我来说是一种令人快乐的活动。我到赛场去，观看马匹、骑手以及骑手们穿戴的彩色绸制赛马服组成的盛大华丽的场面，并享受着这样的壮观景象，更多的是因为我对结果投了2块或5块钱的注。我喜欢在拉斯维加斯或大西洋城花上一两天的时间。但我一两年才去一次，并把自己一天的花费限制在50或100美元。钱一花完，我就四处溜达，看看风景。

不管好坏吧，似乎博彩业在美国仍有发展之势。所以我想博彩类股票----如科学博奕持股公司、梦幻旅游胜地公司和曼达雷旅游胜地公司所发行的----是值得一赌的。

促进合乎道义的投资是值得赞赏的，但我怀疑这种“一刀切”的做法能否行得通。我认为任何打算进行合乎道义的投资的人应该考虑到它的复杂性和困难程度。

盖普公司的问题：

举个例子，派克斯世界基金，总部设在新罕布什尔州的朴次茅斯，说它只投资于那些“尊重员工，尊重环保，尊重社区”的公司。相信它是尽力这样做的，但在一个不完美的社会里，这些决策是非常困难的。 派克斯世界基金所持有的最多的股票是盖普公司的股票。周五，盖普（及其他一些零售商）输了一场官司，他们本想驳回被指控销售美国西潘地区血汗工厂生产的衣物伽诉讼案。8月，包括诺德斯道姆公司、J．克鲁集团公司在内的其他四个被告同意出资125万美元设立基金来监督西潘工厂的工作条件，以此解决向他们提出的索赔要求。

这都不意味着盖普是个差劲的公司，或者在西潘事件中是有罪的。但它确实说明了在作出道德性投资决策方面存在的困难。