Ready to take on the bankers betting on food in a game of human blackjack?

Gary Dunion, used to be food campaigns officer

The financial crisis has exposed the power of unregulated financial markets to wreck the real economy most of us depend on. And the bailouts and bonuses have shown that when bankers get it wrong, they aren’t the ones that suffer the consequences.

The credit crunch was infamously caused by gambling on derivatives, complex and shadowy financial instruments that in this case were based on ‘sub-prime’ mortgage debt. When gambling on mortgages is out of control, people lose their homes – so what happens when the gambling is on food?

Welcome to Human Blackjack.

Bankers betting on food caused the crisis of 2008 that took the number of hungry in the world above 1 billion people. And they did it again this year when the price of wheat shot up 40% in a single month.

It’s dangerous, it’s immoral and it’s easily preventable. They can only get away with it as long as people are too confused by financial jargon to understand what they’re doing. To stop them, we only need to let everyone see exactly what goes on behind the doors of the casino.

Any time from midday to midnight on Friday the 26th of November, we invite you to take a seat at the gaming table in the role of the President of the United States, a City banker or a Kenyan laundrywoman and play against George Osborne for the future of food.

Right now, you can play your first hand, sign up for the game and pass the invitation on to your friends. Please post the link http://www.wdm.org.uk/humanblackjack to your blog and your Facebook profile. On Twitter, use the short link http://wdm.li/cahbjJ and the hashtag #hungercasino.

On game day, come back to the same page to play as Barack Obama, Judith Atieno Odhiambo or a City Boy. Find out how to beat the bankers, compare your score with your friends and win a box of Lush goodies into the bargain.

Start off by playing your first hand and signing up here.

Be lucky.