Does the Government use of gaming revenues to finance culture, health, arts, sports and

educational programs for the nation provide an opportunity for these the industry to claim that it
is exercising its corporate social responsibility being socially? Explain stating 3 reasons for your
response.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) in essence is about businesses being seen as a
corporate citizen, caring about the society in which they operate, integrating their social and
environmental concerns into their business operations, (BusinessDisctionary.com).
The gaming industry is seen as one of those industries that are controversial, meaning
that their products and services are contested. Muijen, (2013) argued that gambling providers are
generally considered as entities that cannot be connected with a socially responsible behaviour,
as well as the armaments and tobacco industries, or producers of alcoholic beverages. The
reasons can be mainly seen in the negative externalities that are connected with gambling. It is a
well-known fact, that gambling is connected with a number of negative externalities relating to,
above all, pathological gamblers (financial problems, family breakdown, suicide, crime, health
system costs etc.), and potential non-transparent monetary transactions (e.g. money laundering)
or displacement of existing business and spending . This causes their engagement in corporate
social responsibility to be questionable.
Though, in Jamaica, gambling is considered to be wron g for religious reasons. On the
other hand, it is also necessary to take the positive externalities into account, such as the
government using gaming revenues to finance programs such as culture, health, arts, sports and
education can be seen as the industry being corporate socially responsible for ethical, legal,
philanthropic and economic reasons .According to Carroll the corporate social responsibility
consists of economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic responsibilities.

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The ethical dimension of social responsibility refers to behaviors and activities that are
expected or prohibited by stakeholder. It is expected of the Lottery Company to not only care
about the profits made but also the environment in which it operates. The Government also has
the responsibility to ensure that companies operating in Jamaica contribute to the development of
the country, and especially that of the Lottery Company.
The legal dimension refers to obeying laws and regulations established by government to
set minimum standards for responsible behavior. This is so because the Government is making
the effort to try and better the country and is also responsible for establishing laws that will be
sued as ground rules for responsible business activities. In support of this point, the case stated
that the Culture, Health, Arts, Sports and Education Fund (CHASE) was registered under the
Companies Act to receive, distribute, administer and manage the monetary contributions from
the lottery companies pursuant to Section 59G of the betting gaming and Lotteries Act.
The philanthropic dimension of social responsibility relates first of all to the
economy and how resources for production of goods and services to be distributed within social
system. The areas of sports development, early childhood education, health and arts and culture
are critical to the development of the country and the lottery company contributing back to the
economy illustrate corporate citizenship and their interest in philanthropy despite the controversy
that surrounds them. Corporate citizenship is the extent to which businesses meet legal, ethical,
economic and philanthropic responsibilities placed by various stakeholders.
There may be advantages to them doing what they are doing such as tax holidays or
improved reputation but the fact still remains that they care about the society. This all in all
means that they are exercising its corporate social responsibility and some of the benefits to these
industries include improved quality of life of the persons using the facilities and the communities

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in which they are located. Also, children will be able to benefit from the contributions made to
early childhood education. In addition, Jamaica is known for its richness in Arts and Culture and
the contribution received will be beneficial to its development.
The economic dimension of social responsibility refers to business contribution to local
community and society. The relationship between environment and corporations also affect costs
to economy.
Another reason or point of view of the focus of social responsibility can be found in the
work of Steinerov & Makovski , who distinguish four main components of the CSR - the
market (focus on transparent business, positive relationships to the investors, the customers, the
suppliers and other business partners, the companys positive impact on the economy), the
working environment (focus on the employees, their remuneration, working environment, quality
and loyalty), the local community (establishing good relationships with the neighbours, and
taking part in solving local problems), and the environment (i.e. diminishing the negative
impacts on the environment, and activities in the area of the environment).This view also
highlights that the government use of gaming revenues to finance culture, health, arts, sports and
educational programs for the nation provide an opportunity for these the industry to claim that it
is exercising its corporate social responsibility .
Legitimizing why companies in these industries contribute to certain areas is hard in
every country. This is particularly hard due to the concept of window dressing hypotheses. This
means that companies engage in socially responsible actions merely to make a good impression.
This concept is used when persons think that these corporations are just trying to remedy the
harm that they have caused. While this may true, the fact still remains that these corporations are
helping the country. Jamaica is a developing country and like every other country the

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government cannot do everything on its own. These programs need the help and the gaming
industry is giving a helping hand towards promoting sustainable development through its
corporate citizenship.

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References

Corporate Social Responsibility. Retrieved from:

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/corporate-socialresponsibility.html#ixzz3eB7QoNo9
Muijen, (2013)., Corporate Social Responsibility Starts at University, Journal of Recent
Researches in Applied Economics ISBN: 978-1-61804-009-1 58 Business Ethics, Vol.
53, No. 1-2, 2004, pp. 235-246
Steinerov, M., & Makovski, D., Koncept CSR v praxi, prvodce odpovdnm podniknm,
2008, retrieved March 28th 2011 from http://www.csronline.cz/NewsDetail.aspx?p=3&id=581.
Trevino L.K. & Nelson K.A. (2011 ). Managing Business Ethics: Straight Talk About How to
Do It Right. 5th Ed. John Whiley & Sons, Inc.