Hindus upset at usage of deities Lakshmi & Ganesh on online slot gambling game

[garyopa]

The debate is open again



We have here another issue with religious groups colliding with videogames, this time about the use of certain symbols in a new slot machine game.

We have just received a curious press release about the Hindus getting upset at a new slot game called Lakshmi Gold because the use of some symbols.

Read on.

Hindus are upset at the reported launch of Hindu goddess Lakshmi themed new online slot game titled Lakshmi Gold, calling it highly inappropriate.

According to reports, wild symbol in this game, launched by Isle of Man headquartered company Playtech, is Hindu deity Ganesh, which offers the jackpot payout of 10,000 coins. Other regular symbols in this game include cow, which is sacred to Hindus. Lakshmi is the bonus symbol in this five reel 25 payline video slot and a hymn to Lakshmi is delivered during the free spins. Claimed to be suitable for high rollers, it is said to be already live at few Playtech online casinos.

Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that Goddess Lakshmi and Lord Ganesh, who were highly revered in Hinduism, were meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not for promoting gambling on an online slot for mercantile greed of an online gaming company.

Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, urged Playtech to publicly apologize and immediately recall this slot game showing Hindu Goddess Lakshmi and Lord Ganesh. Inappropriate usage of Hindu deities or concepts for commercial or other agenda was not okay as it hurt the devotees.

Hinduism was the oldest and third largest religion of the world with about one billion adherents and a rich philosophical thought and it should not be taken lightly. Symbols of any faith, larger or smaller, should not be mishandled, Rajan Zed stressed.

In Hinduism, Lakshmi is the goddess of good fortune and beauty and is also known as ‘world-mother’. Lord Ganesh is worshipped as god of wisdom and remover of obstacles and is invoked before the beginning of any major undertaking. Moksh (liberation) is the ultimate goal of Hinduism.

Founded in 1999, Playtech, whose tagline is "Source of Success", claims to be "the world’s largest publicly-traded online gaming software supplier". Besides Isle of Man headquarters, it has units in United Kingdom, Sweden, Estonia, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Israel. Roger Withers is its Board Chairman while Mor Weizer is Chief Executive Officer. The Isle of Man is autonomous dependency of British Crown.

Our thanks to 'Kaos2K' for this news item!

[vboy]

Why is everyone overly sensitive these days?

[wewii]

People openly critizie Christians and make fun of their doctrines and beliefs as fairy tales & tools of oppression. When at it's essence it teaches peace, equality and love.

Not to mention church bombings in the Middleeast and Africa and Christian persecution all over the world.

Sorry but your concerns seem a little ridiculous in comparison.

[billysastard]

People openly critizie Christians and make fun of their doctrines and beliefs as fairy tales & tools of oppression. When at it's essence it teaches peace, equality and love.

Not to mention church bombings in the Middleeast and Africa and Christian persecution all over the world.

Sorry but your concerns seem a little ridiculous in comparison.

its all fairy stories and i'm pretty sure christianity has some pretty serious lessons to learn about peace, equality and love with anything from the crusades and inquisition to the illegal war in iraq and the rabid imbeciles in america trying to push their rich, white, heterosexual agenda on everyone, so much for peace, equality and love, sounds more like oppression to me.

i do agree that religions had their valid reasons at the time of their foundations to bring groups together as a form of self preservation and yes, maybe then they did have certain ideals however in pretty much every case those ideals only applied to those of their own group whilst others were (and still are) slaughtered.